Doomed Playthrough
by Burnzs
Summary: Markiplier's at it again. It's a new game called doomed. However, this play-through could be more than he bargained for.
1. Chapter 1

"Hello Everybody, My name is Markiplier and welcome to Let's play: Doomed." Mark inwardly cringed when his voice came out less boisterous than he had planned. Although to be fair, this was a usually par the course when he played while he was tired.

He had just gotten back from PAX West and while he would normally just wait a few hours so that he could shake off fatigue that came from travel, he was in a near panic because he had failed to pre-record enough videos. The trip had lasted a little longer than he had planned, so now he was a day behind on his video schedule.

While he had no tangible obligation to upload videos today, and he was sure that his fans would be understandable why he was unable to, he himself felt the need to post to show his own dedication to his community.

However, he had to rush to find a game to play that would not mess up the schedule that he had planned out for the rest of the week. This led him to the list of suggested games that he had collected over the years. He had to skip over the first couple as he was already planning to play those later in the month.

In his search, he finally found a suitable game. It had been suggested by quite a few of his fans, most of them in Illinois with a few in Wisconsin. Since he was planning to play the new recreated Doom later in the year, he felt that the name was a nice homage.

Which led to him sitting in front of his computer and loading up this new game. He turned to the camera with a genial smile, "I'm sorry if I seem a little out of it. I just got back from PAX, and that was a roller-coaster in itself. I was going through my long list of games and I found this.

Just to be clear, I'm pretty sure that this game doesn't have anything to do with the old game Doom. It also isn't related to the new one that's coming out." He nodded to confirm his point and clicked on the start game icon, "In fact, I've actually been in and around playing with it just to see what it was like. The thing is, this game is an MMORPG, so you get to create your own character."

A new character loaded on screen and Mark looked on full of pride, "Now, like I said, I already started playing, so I have a character set up and I'm happy to say that my character looks a lot like me. You see, this game has a program that scans your photograph and creates an avatar that was recreated from it, then it lets you edit little details."

He clicked on the "edit character" button and it pulled up a new dialogue box, "It's also fun because you can change the age of your avatar. Right now, I've got him set to 26 years old, but what if I tweak him to be 20? Hmm?" he nodded and his voice became playfully wistful, "Ah, to be young again. I remember back when I was naive and new to the world."

He pause with a grin to let his viewers soak in the ambiguity of his statement, "What's even better, I was able to get a weapon that gives homage to my profession. You see, there's a weapon that you can equip called a Vid Box. It lets you pull weapons from games of the past. I've already used a Megabuster from Megaman X and a katana from Ninja Gaiden. It's so cool! As of now, let's get started."

There was a bland loading screen and Mark found his character on a forked road in the middle of a field. He took this time to explain to his viewers, "Okay, so from what I've gathered, the point of this game is to collect nine keys while battling three Boss monsters and navigating through the treacherous terrain." He paused to make his character look around at the peaceful green field that surrounded him, "Yup, treacherous and terrifying terrain."

He started walking forwards but paused, "So… eenie meenie miney… This way!" He turned down the right fork and began to trek up a steep grassy hill, "I'm still not seeing the treacherous terrain here. I mean, it looks more like a…" he trailed off when he looked over the hill and was surprised to see that the landscape had completely changed.

The landscape below him was barren and rocky, but the most notable part was that the place was strewn with what looked to be corpses of defeated knights in armor of varying degrees of shiny.

"Hmm…" I guess I spoke too soon. This looks like some kind of battlefield, but all of the soldiers appear to be wearing the same armor, and I don't see any other knights, so either they turned on each other, or whoever they were fighting came out of the tiff unscathed. Well, I definitely don't want to meet whatever army that they were fighting. He looked over to one body that looked to have been set on fire and couldn't stop the cringe. What a way to go.

Mark made his way through the singed and destroyed landscape until he found himself in front of a rickety wooden bridge over a giant lava pit. The pit was large, but he could still make out the outline of three glowing keys floating above an altar.

Mark gave a flat look, "Okay, there are several things that I find wrong with this situation." he spoke in an exaggeratedly slow pace and he raised a finger to the camera while gesturing to the bridge, "First off, I was just in a meadow and there was absolutely no indication that something of this size was anywhere near this." he raised another finger.

"Next, who would even find the time to build a rickety bridge in the middle of a battle field," he rose a third finger.

"Then, there is the fact that that bridge is too long to just let me go without incident, and I have not seen the boss battle yet. Therefore, my money's on something popping out of the lava when I'm halfway across." He took an exaggerated gasp of air as he rose another finger and turned to address the camera again.

"Finally, why wood? If it's over lava, then who's to say that the heat won't burn it up? Not to mention embers. Clearly, this was not made by a master architect."

He shook his head in disappointment and he made his character step forward. Once Mark's foot went onto the bridge, the thing suddenly began to shake violently.

Startled, Mark began to shriek and clutched the rope railing with a death grip as the bridge continued to shake. Just as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped. Mark's face froze in a display of his earlier shock. After a few seconds, his face fell and he just drawled out, "Could you not?"

After a few more seconds, he was satisfied enough with the stableness of the bridge enough to slowly creep forward. Just as he approached the center of the bridge, the magma began to bubble and just as Mark had predicted, a huge shape burst from the lava.

Mark shrieked again and ran back to the beginning of the bridge, "I so called it!"

The lava slid off of the hulking figure and revealed scales, fangs and wings. Mark swallowed thickly. The first boss was a fucking dragon. He wasn't too sure what it said about the other bosses to come.

Before Mark could react, the dragon charged him with a roar.

He eeped and rolled to the side, with a quick recovery back to his feet, "Ha!" he laughed with forced bravado, "As if your tiny weak dragon skills could match up to me!"

The dragon made a snuffling noise that Mark realized was a snort, "Boy, you're an annoying little human, aren't you?"

Mark gaped at the screen, "Dude! Did the game just respond to my microphone? That's so cool!" he then addressed the A.I., "Hey! My names Mark! Is there any way that I can get the keys without fighting you?"

The dragon snorted, "You are an interesting character indeed. Greetings, Mark. My name is Aragon and I'm going to eat you now."

Mark shrugged, completely unaffected by the threat, "It was worth a shot."

He quickly dodged again as Aragon charged once more, "Is that all you got?" he yelled then added as an afterthought, "You sad excuse of a cleverbot!"

Aragon roared and charged at him again. Mark laughed as he jumped out of the way, "Maybe you aren't so clever. It has already been established that I can dodge you. I guess all the A.I. in the world can't stop boss habits."

Aragon roared in rage, "You want to see something different, you puny human? Fine." He then proceeded to take in a huge breath before he exhaled a huge, unreasonably large wall of fire.

Mark shrieked and ran. As he hoofed it, he spoke frantically, "I guess this would call for a test run of my new weapon."

He hovered his hand over the Vid Box and a gigantic turtle shell shield appeared and he hid behind it as the fire flew around him.

When the smoke cleared and Mark put his shield away, it revealed Aragon giving him a toothy grin, "Was that different enough for you?"

Mark was unimpressed, "Oh, you're a sassy one." He then hovered his hand over the Vid Box again, "but…" and he smirked as he pulled out the Megabuster, "Would you like a face full of gun?"

He released a barrage of energy blasts and they exploded and sent a roaring Aragon flying.

Aragon smirked indulgently as he picked himself up, "Very impressive… for a human. I'm going to enjoy killing you even more."

Mark nodded and said, "Okay, so this game doesn't have much of a variation for responses. Even so, you shouldn't be surprised that I'm so tough. I am super good at games."

This time it was Aragon's turn to look unimpressed, "Apparently you like to talk a lot too." He growled lowly as he charged for Mark, "I guess it's time for some more variety in my strategy, as you oh so elegantly put it."

Mark was a little confused at the statement. At least, he was, until his attempt to dodge backwards was halted by a blast of heat and he glanced back in horror to see that Aragon had backed him up and cornered him with the lava pit to his back.

"Oh crud." He cursed as he hovered his hand over the Vid Box for one last gamble. With noticeable effort, he lifted a huge gun.

Aragon scoffed as he flew, "Even if you kill me, my body will still knock you into the lava. I will just respawn back after the game restarts, can you say the same about yourself?"

Mark ignored the taunt, but noted it for later, and pulled the trigger, releasing a huge bola that launched out and wrapped around Aragon. Due to the speed and force of the weights, the dragon was propelled upwards enough to fly above him. And straight into the lava pit where he exploded into data.

Mark looked on confused, "Wait… but how did he..." he gestured weakly to the lava pit, "and he actually came out of..." he then gestured to the camera before he frowned and gave the lava pit a disproving look, "Why was it lethal for him to fall in if he spawned from it?"

After a few seconds of disbelief, nothing happened, so he blinked, "Well, okay then. While I did enjoy how the dragon was aware that he was a program and had no concern about death, a nice feature, the method to defeat him was a little illogical.

From the way that he spoke, he seemed to think that I had other progress before I came to him. I have a feeling that he wasn't supposed to be the first boss, so there's a chance that the other battles would be easier. Not that that was really that hard.

Although I have a feeling that there may have been multiple ways to defeat him. I find it hard to believe that everyone would have the same admittedly stupid idea to throw the dragon into the same pit that he came from."

Mark walked over and swiped up the keys before he huffed and turned back where he came. Once more, he made his way through the battlefield of dead warriors that he now realized must have been past warriors that tried to slay the dragon.

He then went back up and down the hill and found the path again. With a sigh, Mark said, "Well that wasn't so bad. Hopefully the other keys will be equally acquirable. Now that we've taken care of the dragon, it's time for the next challenge."

He faced the other path from the fork and couldn't help but notice that further down led to another hill. He sighed exasperatedly, "Looks like it's time for another drastic scene change."

He started up the hill and froze at the top as he stared at the structure below that seemed slightly out of place.

Mark pointed back at the structure, then back at the dragon lair, then back and forth between the two, "Is that a school? Like, an actual school within the middle of a field? Alright, so I may not actually be an architect, nor do I understand what kind of curriculum that they would teach, but why in the world would someone put a school right across from a lava pit."

He made his way down the hill and slowly creaked the door open, "…and it's a high school. A really dark high school. It just gets better and better."

The building was completely dark except for a small light on the ground off to the side. He knelt down and picked up a flashlight, "I don't really like where this is going. Why has this suddenly turned into a horror game?"

He slowly walked down the hallway, but paused and looked up to the bulletin board to read the flier for announcements, 'Casper High of Amity Park presents the new ultra-recyclo vegetarian meal presented by one Sam Manson.'

"Amity Park? As in the Amityville horror? And Casper high? As in the friendly ghost? Okay, so the school and town names seems a bit like the game makers may have been trying too hard to set up a ghostly building."

He looked down to the next flier which was dated a few weeks later, 'Lunch ladies revolt. Cries for the menu to be returned to normal. Workers enraged over the waste of gallons of unused hamburger meat. Revolt ending in the death of one Patricia Heaton, beloved cafeteria worker and friend.'

Mark looked skeptical, "What kind of school would have a bulletin board like that? It seems like it should be in a newspaper, but instead they have this story of death on colorful construction paper. I would like to speak to the principal about this negligence."

He stepped back and addressed his audience, "So from what I've gathered, this school changed the lunch menu, it enraged the lunch ladies and they revolted with poor ol' Patricia falling in the crossfire. Now her evil ghost is haunting the school to get revenge for all of that hamburger meat that was abandoned to rot. Now that I'm here, she's going to hunt me down and stab me in the butt."

Mark sighed and followed the path until he found himself in a cafeteria. With barely even a glance at his surroundings, he walked past the counter and into the back room. That was where he found three large refrigerators that he assumed probably held the unnecessarily large quantities of hamburger meat.

He reached up and grabbed the handle…

"What are you doing, young man?"

Mark nearly jumped three feet in the air and he whipped around to see a sweet looking old woman dressed as a lunch lady She was heavyset with a pink dress and hairnet with a white apron and yellow rubber gloves. Even seeing the harmless looking old lady, he was still uneasy for some reason.

He put on a forced smile, "Hi friend!" he ignored when his voice cracked, "Are you Patricia Heaton? Are you the lunch lady that died in the revolt?"

The lunch lady smiled serenely, "Oh, dearie, I merely died to protect the menu. It had been the same for years and to change it was pure evil."

Mark made a face, "Oh. So I guess you're nutso bonkers, then. Fantastic."

Suddenly, the lunch lady's smile seemed a bit more strained, "So I guess that you don't agree with my sacrifice. I guess you have to die now."

Mark's eyes widened minutely, "Man! I keep forgetting about the microphone."

With her statement, her eyes turned red and she seemed to catch alight with green flame, "You will die for your ignorance! But first…"

Suddenly, the evil aura disappeared and the lunch lady turned back into a sweet old woman, "Would you like a cookie?"

Mark was taken aback and he drawled out with uncertainty, "No?"

As if a switch had been flipped, the evil atmosphere returned and the lunch lady was evil again, "Then feast on your doom!" she raised her hands menacingly and the refrigerators began to tremble.

Before Mark could even start his question, the appliances burst open and began leaking out the expected hamburger meat. At least, Mark HOPED that it was hamburger meat. It all conglomerated together and rose into a giant wave above her head.

Mark gaped, "Woah. Let's save the meat and greet for later."

The lunch lady roared in anger and the meat broke apart and formed several little meat-made creatures, "Go my meat minions!"

Mark crouched low, "You're goose is cooked!" after his brilliant obligatory one-liner, he hovered his hand over the Vid Box and he pulled out a lightsaber.

The minions charged and Mark easily sliced one cleanly in half, "I prefer my meat monsters well done," he sliced another, "Roasted!"

Two jumped at him and he leapt up as they crashed together, "Hey, you've got something on your face!" he sliced their heads off, "Oh wait, never mind."

The lunch lady looked as if she was sucking on a lemon, "Is it really necessary for you to give commentary?"

Mark startled, "Oh, I forgot about the response software... again," he shook his head, "Never mind that, no way! The whole reason that these people watch my videos is for my glorious commentary! I would never want to deprive them!"

She looked unimpressed, "Your destruction is imminent! But first…" she paused and the evil atmosphere disappeared again, "Would you like some pie?"

Mark was thrown off even more with the sudden change. After a second of thought, he decided to try a new tactic, "Yes, please?"

The lunch lady looked taken aback, but then she turned evil again, "Too bad! Treats are only for good little children!" with another wave of her hands, the meat gathered behind her and rose into a tsunami of meat.

Mark yelped and jumped back behind a counter and hid as the meat crashed overhead. Mark peered around the barrier as the woman brought up her hands again. Suddenly, he got a brilliant idea. He called out to the lunch lady before she could launch the attack again, "That's a lovely apron!"

Suddenly, the lunch lady turned meek again, "Thank you sweetie. Such a nice young man."

With her distracted, she was no longer holding up the meat that was hovering above her head. The large quantity of meat fell and crushed her and she exploded into data.

Mark smirked triumphantly, "Looks like you got to MEAT your maker!"

He then proceeded to break down into an exaggerated hacking cough that lasted far longer than necessary. Finally, he stopped and sighed, "…and I'm an idiot.

 **XxoxX**

Mark exited the building and made his way back to the fork in the road where he first began the game. However, now that he had six keys, now what?

"Where am I supposed to get the next ones? Following the game logic, the first six keys were grouped in three, so that means that the last three keys will be together, so how do I get them? I've already taken the two paths to battle the dragon and the psycho lunch lady." He paused as realization hit him and he groaned, "Don't tell me that I go back down the path that I started on. That would mean that I accidentally skipped the first and probably easiest boss battle and any possible battle mechanic tutorials."

He sighed in resignation and made his way down the first and hopefully last path, eventually finding another hill, and with an exasperated sigh, he trekked over to his next destination. And he found himself in front of what looked to be a warehouse... a very dark and creepy warehouse... in the middle of a field surrounded by grass.

Mark chose not to comment. He instead made his way to the front door and slowly creaked it open, only to be met with endless piles of... "BOXES!" Mark's battle cry seemed to echo off the blank walls, which he noted as a cool feature.

He shuffled through his inventory and, much to his delight, found a crowbar. He was just about to start on the nearest pile of boxes to begin his mindless rampage to find the keys, only to freeze when he heard someone respond to his yell.

"Who dares disturb the Box Master!?"

Mark blinked in confusion and turned to the voice and came face to face with a rather stout man in a pair of blue overalls and a blue beanie and black gloves. As far as he could tell, this was just a normal warehouse worker. There was absolutely nothing about his appearance that would support his claim as the Box Master. It was certainly not enough to warrant the confiscation of the magic behind Tiny Box Tim. So he decided to respond the best he could… with overly apparent sarcasm.

"Is that an official title, or are you delusional?"

The warehouse worker didn't even seem to notice Mark's snark and seemed to be seriously considering the question. Mark decided to call him Boxy for simplicity's sake, "Actually, no. It was not my original name, but once that man took over this game, he allowed me to create my own domain and I became what I am today," he paused and seemed to shrink into himself, "For the record, I don't' want to share who I once was."

Mark paused. What a weird way for an A.I. to respond. The game programmers must have really worked on the weird backstory. And yet they can't come up with legitimate stages beyond a lava pit. Seriously. There is no explanation for why there is a school or a warehouse in the middle of nowhere. He shook off the thought for later pondering and chose instead to goad Boxy, "So does that mean that you know Tiny Box Tim?"

His sarcastic question was met with a resounding silence and the man looked at him, considering. Suddenly, Boxy's eyes lit up and he looked like a kid on Christmas, "Oh my sweet Corrugated Cardboard! That name... Could you possibly be the pink mustached one?"

Mark blinked in surprise, "What?"

Boxy nodded eagerly, "Yeah, yeah! That one guy on the internet videos that plays video games to entertain others? You clearly showed your love and affection for a sweet little box and you even offered to defend it from bullies.

"What?" Mark didn't even try to hide his incredulous tone.

Boxy didn't even seem to notice, he just continued to gush, "I may not be able to watch internet videos often, but when I do, I always follow your videos. Especially the ones that have you punishing and vanquishing evil boxes that could bully your little biscuit. You are a saint and an inspiration."

He ran out for a few moments and then returned with the three keys, "Now normally, I'm supposed to fight you for these, but seeing as you're practically a refrigerator box sized celebrity, I guess this can just be a freebee. Now go, before I get caught.

Before he could even respond, Mark suddenly found himself with an arm full of keys as he was pushed out the very door he entered from, and the door slammed behind him. He took a moment to compose himself and once he did, he threw his composure out the window.

"What?" Mark spoke as if he had had a stroke. He paused, then repeated himself with a higher pitch. Finally, he regained his composure again, "That was… I don't know. I think that may have been a shout out to me from the creators of the game. That is so cool! To reference my past antics and to give me a free pass because of my gaming? This is always flattering when I find something like this."

Mark sighed dreamily one last time before he turned around and headed back towards the intersection. After a few more seconds of basking, he finally shook it off and nodded in satisfaction.

"Anyway, I think that that's a good place to stop. This game is interesting enough, but it looks like I've been playing for about an hour and a half. I guess I'll end the episode here. In the meantime, thank you all for watching. Click the annotations for more videos that I've done and as always I will see you in the next video. Bye-bye!"

Mark clicked out of the software and saved his project. He sent a copy of the video to Matt and he stretched and all but fell into his bed. It was time for a well-deserved nap.

However, as he slept, a dark shadow appeared and hovered above his bed. The figure cackled, "You think you escaped? Ha! I did not take over the game and create a trap for you just to let you escape. The game has only just begun."

A dark fog began to creep in and when it cleared, the room was clear of both occupants.

 **End**

 **Disclaimer: I only own the story. Characters and videogame props belong to their owners.**

 **A/N: So I decided to write this because I recently found Markiplier on Youtube. I loved his content and I wanted to write this as a fan. *shrugs* I tried to find fan fiction since Markiplier constantly references it in his videos. However, it's surprisingly difficult because I only found stories about unrealistic relationships or obsessions. If someone were to read this and knows of a good fanfiction that isn't about these could you suggest it? I would like to read an adventure if possible. Now unfortunately, I'm still relatively new to Markiplier's content, so I haven't quite got his mannerisms down. Also, I'm not good at dick jokes.**


	2. Chapter 2

Mark awoke with a splitting headache and the loud bird alarm clock was not helping at all. He rolled over and his pointy bedsheet poked him in the face. He grunted and rolled over again only to end up squishing his glasses. Thankfully, they remained unbroken. Mark snorted in annoyance and rolled onto his back. He just stayed lying down as he started to wake up and his senses began to return to him.

His eyes shot open in realization. His bed sheets weren't pointy and he didn't sleep with his glasses on. Most importantly of all, he threw out his bird alarm clock right after that one skit he tried to do. He shuddered… so many buzzards.

He sat up and looked around in confusion to see that he was in an open field with no recognizable landmarks. He was in a near panic. What the fuck was going on and how in the world did he get here?

His breakdown was interrupted and he nearly jumped three feet when a screen zoomed down and stopped to hover in front of him. There was some white noise that slowly cleared and revealed a green man in sunglasses and a white mullet.

"Hello, human!" he began in a nasally voice, "I am Technus: the master of technology, and I have trapped you in my recently acquired tool to take over the world. All I had to do was invite you to play my game so that I could pull you in to keep you prisoner. Once I have enough of the human gamers, the world will become unsustainable and it will fall into chaos and I can swoop in and take over!" He then proceeded to break down into obnoxious laughter.

Mark looked unimpressed, "Okay, so it's just like any other game. I'll just have to win and escape."

Technus smirked, "No one wins… ever."

Mark's face fell into a scowl, "Well, whatever. So does that mean that I have to collect nine more keys and then use the eighteen to fight a big boss?"

Technus looked annoyed, "No. Unfortunately, all of the keys are universal, so I had to confiscate them so you wouldn't use them to advance further before you were supposed to. You see, there's a new objective to this level. This time, you need to use your keys to open this door."

Technus gestured to the side and a purple door appeared, it had nine keyholes, before he continued, "Now, however, there are enough people trapped in this program that I can team you up with other people to get rid of you all quicker. It will just be a few seconds before they join you. Have fun, and try not to die too quickly!"

With that, the screen floated away with Tecnhus's nasally laughter echoing through the field. The self-proclaimed master of technology seemed too self-absorbed to notice the middle finger from the red haired wonder.

"Well, this sucks, "Mark said simply once the screen was completely gone. Although, he felt like he was handling the situation well considering the fact that he had been sucked into the world of a videogame. He was inwardly surprised that he hadn't been panicking more.

His musings were interrupted by dual screams of terror. Two pink portals appeared and a girl and a guy fell out.

"Oof." The guy grunted as the girl fell on top of him. She quickly jumped up in surprise, "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!"

The guy sat up slowly and shook his head to regain his senses. He looked around his mid to late twenties. His black hair was clean cut and he had thin black glasses. He was wearing a green woolen sweater and blue jeans. He also wore a cloth shoulder guard and a glove on his right hand that covered his three middle fingers. On his back, he had a bow hanging from a quiver of arrows.

The girl reached down to help him up, but once her eyes stopped on his face, her own face lit up in recognition, "Glen, is that you?"

She looked a little younger that the guy, Glen if she was correct, and she had her reddish hair pulled up into a low ponytail. She was wearing a brown leather jacket over a black tank top and a short black skirt. She also had long black boots. She gave the feeling of an anime sword fighter. Especially with the katana strapped to her waist. Although to be fair, the characters were designed by the players.

Although it seemed like it would have made the transition into the game a little difficult if someone made their character hard to move around with. It made him feel better that he just made his own character look close enough to himself that he didn't have too much trouble transitioning to the change.

Finally, the girl seemed to be done fussing over Glen and she pulled him up to his feet and pulled him into a crushing hug, "I'm so happy you're safe! When we got separated, I thought you were killed! I was afraid I would never see you again!" she then proceeded to softly cry into his chest.

Glen hugged her back fiercely to console her, "Oh Anne, darling, I would have done anything to find you again," he whispered gently into her hair.

Mark watched on with starry eyes. Oh they were so adorable! Of course, he didn't want to be a creeper, so he steeled his resolve and gently cleared his throat, "So I guess you two are my new teammates?"

Glen and Anne didn't look shamed at all as they pulled away from each other and Anne answered, "Is that so?" she did a quick once over on him and paused at his hair, "Oh my, I didn't know it was part of the fashion nowadays to dye the top of your hair red.

Glen looked at her amused, "Dear, Don't you remember that Cory dyed his hair like that to emulate that YouTube fellow. I think that only a few people do it."

Mark would have felt flattered, but he knew that he wasn't the only YouTuber, and he didn't want to be presumptuous, so he let the comment slide.

He smiled genially, "So since we're gonna work together, we should make nice and try to learn about one another. Although, I'm starting to get the impression that you two already know each other."

Anne drew herself up, "You are correct there, sir. Glen is actually my husband. When we first started this game, we were on a team together, playing two computers in our office. Our son Cory wanted us to try this game and we agreed to get good and make a team with him. At least, that was the original plan, but then, as crazy as it sounds, some spooky green dude with a mullet pulled us into the game.

Mark nodded, "I was just recording my gameplay when he got me too."

Glen raised his hands to slow them down, "Wait wait wait. Shouldn't we start at the beginning? You know, introduce ourselves?" he gestured to sit and the three sat in a friendly circle. "My name is Glen Davis. I'm 52 and soft spoken. I like cooking and spending time with my family and watching movies."

Anne shrugged, "Alright I'll go next. Anne Davis, 50 and often been called bombastic. I like reading and my husband. I also like strategy games like Chess or Mahjong."

Mark shrugged as well, he could roll with it. "My name is Mark Fischbach. I'm 26. I'm learning to be a comedian and I like video games."

Mark nodded in greeting to the two and they nodded back, "So is your son also in this game?" he asked worriedly.

Anne shook her head, "No, thank goodness. He wanted us to check the game out for him since his favorite YouTuber hadn't done a review on it yet, so he didn't know if it was good or not."

Glen rolled his eyes fondly, "That boy. 17 years old, almost 18, and he still can't choose his own videogames without someone else's opinion."

Anne turned to him and shrugged, "You know, Cory makes a point. There's no point shelving out sixty dollars on a game if he doesn't like it. Besides, that Markiplier fellow seems like a very nice boy. He's seems likely to give a fair review."

This time, Mark did not attempt to squish down his feeling of pride. And he gained a goofy smile, "I'm Markiplier!" he shouted suddenly, making the two jump. Apparently they had forgotten he was there.

She turned to him with a raised eyebrow, "Are you now?"

Mark became giddy, "Yes! I am Markiplier! I'm doing a review for this game now!"

She smirked, "Well that seems to be working well for you."

Mark flushed at forgetting where he was.

Glen examined him, "You do look an awful lot like him… huh. Well that's cool." He reached over and grabbed Mark's hand in a firm handshake, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mark. Ever since he had started to watch your videos, Cory has smiled so much more. He started working at a nursery and decided to be a childcare specialist so that he could give joy to others like you did for him. You've done so much for him."

Anne nodded, "Yeah, man! When this is over, would you call him to tell him he's awesome? I just feel the obligation to ask since I am his mother and I know he would freak if he got a call from Markiplier. Here's our junk number for non-business calls."

Before he could even react, she had grabbed his hand and given him a small scrap of paper. He put the paper in his pocket, but gave her a funny look, "Very presumptuous. But I'll see what I can."

Anne shrugged, "It's understandable if you can't so I wouldn't be offended if you didn't. I'm just saying it would be cool."

Mark nodded awkwardly. He really doubted that he would be able to contact Cory, due to his near overwhelming popularity, but he would definitely try. He quickly, almost desperately, changed the subject, "So since we're going to be fighting together, we should probably learn each other's fighting styles. For me, I have the capability to be a ranged or melee fighter and I've had experience with both. Before I met you three, I fought a dragon and took him out with a bola launcher, a demonic lunch lady and took her out with a light saber, and finally a warehouse worker." He did not feel the need to mention that he had not been in the actual game yet.

The two stared at him for an elongated second to process what he said. It was Anne that seemed to recover first, "A demonic… lunch lady?" after a second, she shrugged, "All right, I'll roll with it. I fight with a sword, as you can probably tell," she gestured to her katana lazily, "After I got separated from Glen, I fought a biker with a demented shadow, some shapeshifting green blob that turned into a ninja, and some lonely fat guy in pajamas that kept trying to freeze me after I refused to be his friend."

Glen was up next and helplessly gestured to his own weapon, the bow and arrow, "I don't have more than that. Although the game gave me a sort of eagle eye. It's a little disorienting, but I can zoom in on what I aim at. For my battles, I fought a Goth chick who kept blowing explosive kisses at me while she complained about her two-timing boyfriend. Then there was also a crazy super powered psychologist. She kept saying all these mentally damaging things, but she was easy enough to take out when she turned into a shadow and charged me. I just used my light arrows. Thankfully, I majored in psychology in college, so I could mentally disprove her diagnosis. Finally, I also fought a warehouse worker. He kept throwing boxes at me."

Once they finished their discussion, Mark stood, prompting the others to join him, "Alright. So does that mean that we're ready to move on? How would we go about doing that?"

The three turned to the large purple door as the area rumbled around them. Suddenly, the ground broke open and three more purple doors rose. They were different than the main door, though. They had no keyholes and each had an emblem above them. The first had what looked to be a guitar, the second looked to have a stuffed tiger head above it, and finally the last had what looked to be a genie lamp.

Mark opened the door with the guitar emblem and the three of them made their way through and out onto the top of bleachers that led down to what looked to be a music stadium.

"Great, so the battles take place in different landscapes," Mark said, "I guess the doors must be portals to different places."

Glen looked a little too nervous and Anne looked excited.

Mark nodded to the two behind him, "So Me and Anne will go forward and check out the stage. Glen, stay back here and provide cover if necessary."

Glen nodded and tightened his hand on his bow, crouching beside a nearby waste bin for as much cover as he could get. Anne nodded and pulled out her sword. Mark hovered his hand over the Vid Box and a stylized "SF" appeared on the screen before a red band popped out and Mark tied it around his head. He immediately felt his body course with newfound power.

The two melee fighters stepped down through the bleachers and once they stopped onto the floor surrounding the stage, there was an explosion of special effects smoke on the platform above and after a long, tense few seconds, it dissipated, and revealed a lanky teenage girl with blue hair that was pulled up into a high ponytail that hovered like fire above her. She had thick black eyeliner that curled below her left eye and dropped into a short line below her right eye. She had a black midriff tank top and black leather pants with a silver belt that lay slightly askew across her hips. Her right hand was cover by a long glove pulled up to her upper arm and her left wrist bore a black bracelet. She also wore white combat boots and a black choker necklace. Her overall appearance suggested a punk rock theme.

"Hi there, the name's Ember McClain and I'll be your opponent today. While I would love to just battle you and get this over with, I've lost way too many battles to the dipstick, so I know that I need to weaken opponents first, so…" she trailed off as a blue flame burst before her and a menacing guitar appeared in her hands. She strummed a single chord.

With an explosion of more special effects smoke, a horde of green monsters appeared. They were just generic intimidating monsters, each coming in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but nothing to really separate them from any other monster. Therefore, Mark felt the prompt to ask, "What no theme? I would think that you would have, like, a punk style of minion or something."

Ember gave an annoyed huff and rolled her eyes as she waved her hand, then, much to Mark's amusement, the monsters pulled out glow sticks, broke and shook them, and put them on strings around their necks.

"There, now they're rave monsters. Happy?" was Ember's snarky response.

Mark laughed, "Oh, you're a sassy one."

Ember shrugged and lazily waved her hand again, signaling the monsters to launch forward.

Mark and Anne stood back to back as the monsters approached. One broke away from the rest and jumped forward with a roar and it brought down its sharp claws. It was rewarded with a katana to the face.

This made the other monsters pull up short and eye the two of them warily. Mark rolled his eyes and pulled his hands back and charged up energy, "Hadoken!"

He released the energy in a blast that blew away the first wave of monsters. This made the other monsters just throw caution into the wind and all launch at once again. Unfortunately, the monsters seemed smarter, so they flanked the two and Mark and Anne ended up having to face enemies from all directions.

Mark ducked below a monster that launched itself at him and Anne swatted it out of the air and caused it to explode into smoke. Mark couldn't even react to the small victory, because another monster jumped at him and he punched it with a fiery uppercut, "Shoryuken!"

The monsters all jumped at the two at once, "Tatsumaki!" Mark yelled and spun in a continuous roundhouse kick as Anne kept below his leg and threw daggers at the ones that came too close. Once he stopped, Mark stumbled back a step and held his head to try and shake off the lingering dizziness, "Okay, shouldn't do that. Good crowd clearer, but big drawback."

Once he regained his bearings, he looked up in time to see a monster right in his face about to claw out his throat. He had no time to react and Anne wasn't close enough to stop it. Before he could even squeak, it exploded into smoke in a blast of energy.

Mark did not look up to Glen, but he was suddenly very thankful for his overlooking presence above them. He ducked low to uppercut another monster before he punched another and kicked a third. He could not see Anne beside him, but he did hear a fair share of monsters puffing into smoke where he left her.

Finally, after what seemed to be hours, the monsters stopped and the area was left barren. Mark and Anne stood slouched and panting to catch their breaths. Up on stage, Ember was picking and buffing her nails to emphasize her disinterest.

"Oh look at this. Are you guys finally done?" She buffed her nails on her shirt then examined them with exaggerated focus, "I guess I can destroy you now."

She strummed on her guitar and sent out a shockwave that sent the two of them crashing to their butts. The two scrambled to their feet, only to have to dive away from each other to dodge a giant fist made of energy.

She then began to strum her guitar and a continuous pink energy beam shot out towards Anne and she brought up the sword to block. As the beam and sword remained in contact, her sword began to glow pink as the energy was reflected to the side. Slowly, she began to slide as the beam became stronger and pushed her back.

Meanwhile, Mark used his newfound skills to silently dash up the side of the stage and sneak towards the attacking punk rocker. He wound up his arm to coldcock her, but he was suddenly met with a face full of blue fire and he was sent flying back off stage. Immediately after, Anne landed next to him with a pained grunt, her glowing hot sword still clutched in her hand. Mark looked up in time to see Ember's hair shrink back down into her ponytail after she had apparently used it to fend him off.

"Yikes, what a hair raising attack!" Mark yelled as he slowly pushed himself to his feet.

Anne face-palmed.

Ember gave him a flat look, "Shut up." She jumped down to the lower area and landed next to him just as he finally regained himself. With a quick movement, she caught Mark with a leg sweep and sent him crashing to his back once again. She grinned maliciously and stomped on his chest. He gagged.

Ember then gracefully leapt to the side to avoid Anne's sword swing and kicked her away. Anne was sent crashing to her butt and sliding back. She coughed, "Damn, she's strong. That hurt like a sonovabitch."

Mark grunted in agreement. The two slowly stood and defiantly glowered at the super powered diva.

She looked decidedly unhappy, "Why are you two still standing? I hit you hard enough to break something. You shouldn't even be able to move."

A pair of harsh glares were her only response.

She scoffed, "Whatever. I'll take you out with one hit." She pulled forward her guitar and rose her hand to power up a final strum of destruction. Mark and Anne remained adamant as they stared her down. Finally, she swiped her hand down.

Only to be stopped when a hail of energy arrows began to rain down atop her. She shrieked as she rose her arms in a weak attempt to ward off the attack. Mark took this distraction to dash in and attack, "Shoryuken!" he yelled and hit her with a fierce uppercut. She coughed up a glob of green blood and back flipped to land on her feet, but the force still caused her to slide back a little. She snarled in anger and brought up her guitar, only to dodge to the side as Anne sent an energy slash. Finally, there was another barrage of energy blasts from above and Ember shrieked as she began to glow and she exploded into smoke. When it cleared, it revealed three keys.

Anne squealed and grabbed the keys. She started jumping up and down in excitement, "We did it!"

Mark joined her and whistled proudly, and called up to his friend in the bleacher, "Nice one, Glen. You totally gave us the opening we needed."

Glen rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Sorry it took so long. It takes me a while to charge up enough energy for my arrow rain."

Mark waved it off, "It's all good. We beat her in the end. A win we couldn't have gotten without you."

The three ran out of the door together, Anne holding the keys above her head triumphantly.

A new team was born.

 **End**

 **Disclaimer on first**

 **A/N: I would like to clarify that I am no expert on Markiplier. I can't figure out how to use twitter. Therefore, please don't judge my misconceptions. Also, I had to put in OCs for the first couple chapters, so beware. It's supposed to help with character development. On the bright side, it's based on actual people I know. That means that if Mark reads this, (pfft) it could be like a letter to him.**

 **Also, I will not claim to be a master writer, so the fight scenes may end up a little bland. Also this chapter was a bit of an attempt to develop my characters. I've been told my character development is terrible. I wanted to make my characters relatable, but I'm not too sure how I did. If anyone has any ideas for improvement that is not ludicrous it would be helpful. Thanks! Bye!**


	3. Chapter 3

"Way to go, guys! We totally kicked her butt!" Mark gushed as they ran back out to the field.

Anne fist pumped, "Yes! Now we just need to win twice more!"

Mark nodded agreeably, "Yup. That was nicely done. But let's wait to recover before we go on to the next fight."

Anne scrutinized him, "What for? We won that last one, no problem. I bet we could get the next just as easily."

Mark snorted, but responded in a whisper with a discreet glance towards their third member who was trying to come down from hyperventilation, "I know that and you know that, but I think that Glen might need a second to completely come to terms. He still seems a little overwhelmed."

Anne suddenly looked stricken. She sent her own glance, one laced with guilt, to her poor husband. She sighed in defeat, "You're right. I'm just enjoying the feeling of being young. I keep forgetting, or choosing not to remember, that Glen and I are technically senior citizens. We're too old to be jumping around as we've been doing. Glen was always more reserved than me, so he must still be adjusting to the change."

Mark put a consoling hand on her shoulder, "It will be alright. I'm sure that Glen wouldn't hold it against you even if he realized what you were doing."

Anne snorted, "He always could read me, so I have no doubt that he already figured me out."

Mark shrugged, "Well, alright."

Suddenly, her eyes gained a devilish twinkle. "How about we spar."

Mark blinked in confusion at the non sequitur, "Alright, but I think we should probably wait until after you and I have recovered. How about after we try to get some sleep."

Anne shrugged, "Alright, but first, I'll have to keep these safe."

She pulled out the three keys and placed them down beside her kneeled form and she began to disturb the earth. Mark watched as she pulled out a sizeable clump of dirt and put it to the side. Before he could ask her why, she plopped the keys down in the hole and pushed the dirt atop them.

"What? Why?" he asked simply, unable to completely voice his utter confusion.

Anne stood calmly and dusted off her skirt, "Well, you told us that Technus stole your keys before he transported you here, so I just wanted to make sure that he doesn't steal these."

Mark shook his head, "There's several variables that you can't consider there. We don't know if we will come back to this clearing in specific, who's to say he isn't watching our actions now, and finally, who's to say that someone else won't find our keys by chance."

Anne smiled indulgently and listed her own reason on her fingers, "We came to you, so there's a high chance that this is supposed to be our hub. Next, He set up each level to be like a coliseum fight. My money would be on him only watching said fights because there would be too much to keep track of if he watched the hubs as well. Finally, he said that there were enough people to make teams, so the idea is that he separated us from other contestants because he can't risk letting people meet because they might team up even more and revolt. Strength in numbers and what not."

"What?" Anne giggled at Mark's shocked look and patted him condescendingly on the cheek, "You didn't think I was just another pretty face."

Mark made a face as she walked past him and began to practice sword katas. Mark shrugged, taking that as the dismissal that it probably was, and walked over to the campfire. He looked over to his other friend to find him off away from the campsite.

Glen sat to the side, leaning forward into his palm while his elbow rested on one of his folded legs. When Mark sat cross-legged beside him, Glen spoke as he stared off into the distance, "You know, I feel like I practically know you from how much Cory talks about you. You kind of remind me of him. You have the same sparkle in your eye as you have fun, the same outgoing energy. I'm happy that he found out about you."

Mark suddenly had a thought. He absolutely loved his fans with a devoted passion and he was extremely flattered to hear so much praise, but he always felt bad when he couldn't actually keep up with them. Here was the father of one of his fans and he had nothing but time. Here was one point where he could learn about someone else that learned so much about him.

He felt his smile grow, "Tell me more. I always love to hear about my fans."

Glen's eyes lit up with a proud sparkle and he gained a mischievous look, "Well, you see, he dressed up as you for this last Halloween. He even dyed his hair red like yours and wore a silly pink mustache that he made himself out of pipe cleaners. It was so cute.

He was clearly star struck. What was funny was that he didn't realize that he had used too much hair dye and ended up with a red hair that did not completely wash out. Even so, instead of lamenting, he used it to entertain the kids at his work," Glen laughed with a proud smile, "So innovative."

Mark couldn't help his own laugh in response to his companion's obvious joy at the subject, "You sound proud."

Glen smiled warmly, "I am extremely proud of him," suddenly, his smile fell, and he said softly, "I just hope that we can make it back to him."

Mark gave him a reassuring smile and bumped his fist against Glen's shoulder, "Don't worry. All we have to do is make it through three more fights, give or take. I'm going to make sure that you get home to your son," he said resolutely.

Glen's mood seemed to brighten a bit, "Thanks, Mark. You're a fine young man." After a second, Glen nodded to himself, "Now let's go get some sleep. We're going to need to get some rest if we want to win this game."

Mark nodded and the two headed back to the campfire to meet up with Anne, and the three lay down around the campsite.

The three slept as the digital sky darkened. Two concerned and one contemplative.

 **XxoxX**

Mark woke to a nudge at his side and he giggled and smacked the hand away. He was answered with someone else's giggle and another prod. He giggled harder and slapped at the hand twice. The other giggle became downright hysterical and Mark creaked his eyes open to see a rolling and giggling Anne.

"He's just so cute," she cooed playfully.

Mark sat quickly and scowled to hide his quickly rising embarrassment. He jumped to his feet and pointed an accusing finger at Anne, "Quit laughing! I need to destroy you!"

Anne raised a delicate eyebrow, "I'm guessing you mean in our spar, of course."

Mark rolled his eyes, "Of course!"

Anne smiled, but shook her head serenely, "Nah, it's okay, I can wait until you fully wake up."

Mark scowled, "I don't need to wake up to beat you. I can beat you half asleep!" he shouted drowsily.

Anne's smile became sharper as she got to her feet and pulled out her katana. She smirked and said, "Aright, fine. Although, I would like you to fight with your martial arts, please. Would you mind using the ability that you used against Ember?"

Mark shrugged and pulled out the headband as he also stood, "Sure."

Anne nodded, "Also, no offense to your skill, but I think I'll attack with the back of my blade so that I do not accidentally injure you."

Mark nodded, "Sounds fair."

Anne sent a test shockwave at him and he shrieked and jumped to the side. He was definitely awake now. His adrenaline filled mind was able to process as she charged him. As she sliced the air where he once was, he back flipped into the air. And propelled himself higher as he shot a Hydoken at Anne.

Instead of reacting frantically, as Mark was doing, Anne calmly turned in a circle as she sliced the Hydoken in half, dissipating it, and she continued to revolve on her heel. When she reached the end of her turn, she used her momentum to send a powerful air slash at Mark as he remained helplessly falling through the air.

Mark yelped as the large air blast flew towards him and he charged up another Hydoken. He quickly fired it at an angle that sent him rocketing into the air around the attack and towards a recovering Anne. Anne back flipped as Mark landed in her spot and created a crater where his fist landed. He then proceeded to dog Anne with constant punches.

Mark was satisfied to see the nervous look grow on her face as she barely dodged another one of his punches. Finally, Anne seemed to have had enough and Mark was sent flying back as Anne spun in a circle to make a vortex with her sword. He landed harshly on his butt. After a second, he jumped up and began to rub his sore backside.

Then he remembered his place and he put his hands on his hips and looked down at her as he laughed, "Ha! You think that those puny powers will defeat me? I'm extremely good at games!"

Anne looked unimpressed, "Apparently, you like to talk a lot, too."

Mark pouted, "Aragon said the same thing! I'm not that bad!"

She said nothing, so he shrugged and charged a huge Hydoken and followed the blast. He knew that this blocked him from her view, but the downside was that he couldn't see her either. This was emphasized when he saw a dagger fly past him. He jumped up into the air as more daggers flew around his attack. He fell down towards his opponent and she rose her sword to block his flying punch. He inwardly noted how the bandages wrapped around his fist softened the collision with metal. Sword and fists flew as the two traded blows back and forth until Mark could feel himself losing ground. He deflected another strike and kicked her away and she slid back with a grunt.

The two stared at each other for a second and after a moment, Anne stood and waited. It took Mark a second to realize that they were done with the spar and he dropped his own fighting stance.

Anne smirked, "You're pretty good."

Mark responded with his own smirk, "You're not so bad yourself."

Mark nodded to the two and turned to the other door as he sat, panting. This one had a tiger head trophy above it, "Alright, are you guys ready to do this?"

Anne nodded, "Yup. We got this!"

Glen suddenly looked very nervous, "I guess."

Mark looked indignant, "C'mon, man! We semi-easily beat a super powered punk rocker, and you're still unsure? Just sack up man!"

Glen returned the accusatory glare with his own resolute stare, "You're right! We can totally do it!"

Before either could stop him, he ran off into the next room. Mark and Anne shared a panicked look before they sped after their friend.

"Glen wait! I just meant to ask if you were pumped! We haven't fully recuperated from the spar and preplanned for our next battle!" Mark yelled frantically. Alas, it was too late and the archer was already through the second door and too far to hear them.

"Oh damn," Mark sighed. He and Anne shared a worried look before they followed Glen into the doorway.

 **End**

 **Disclaimer on first chapter**

 **I know that this may have been a little short, but it was supposed to be like a hub chapter. You know, just focused on the hub and their reactions to being stranded. There was also more character building and my own take on Mark's character that I have gathered from the videos I've seen. I was hoping to make my characters likeable, so hopefully I've done that. I'm kind of running low on chances to build them up. Hopefully I can revise and publish the next chapter soon. The next one will just be more fighting and a little drama… at least, that's what I would call it.**

 **Burnzs out!**


	4. Chapter 4

As they entered, they found themselves in some kind of alien forest. Or, at least, it was alien to Mark because the grass and trees were glowing a bright neon green color and there was a skull shaped mountain in the distance.

"Well well well, look at the little rats that have entered my domain."

Mark's head shot up and he was met with a rather terrifying sight. Above them, a large muscular man in a black tank top and black pants was flying with a jetpack. He had a black necklace with a green skull pendant and a silver shoulder guard and his pants were tucked into silver combat boots. However, his most notable feature was the Mohawk and goatee made of green flames.

"Yeaaaahhhh!" The man carelessly hovered to the side as Anne flew past him with a battle cry.

He huffed in irritation, "I see you are eager to become my prey. Very well. I am Skulker the hunter, and I will kill you now."

He lifted his arm and a somewhat unnecessarily large arm cannon popped up and started charging. He was about to fire, but he had to stop to evade a beam of energy. Once he was upright, he sent a glare at Glen, "Do you mind, I'm trying to kill someone here!"

The three weren't quite sure how to respond to that.

Glen reacted first. He launched another energy arrow and Skulker dodged again. As if it was the signal to attack, Anne jumped at him with an overhead slice and Mark launched a jump kick. Skulker easily grabbed Anne's wrist and flung her to the side and lazily drifted out of Mark's way.

He feigned a yawn, "Surely this is not everything you have. I am not even phased by your primitive tactics."

Glen responded with another barrage of arrows and Mark weaved between them to close the distance between him and Skulker. The hunter was so busy trying to block the arrows that he was unable to stop the flaming uppercut and he was sent flying. He smashed into a nearby tree with a loud crash.

Skulker grunted in irritation as he pulled himself out of the heap. He looked relatively undamaged. The three teammates shared a concerned look before they nodded and readied themselves for more fighting.

Skulker grunted again before he spoke in a calm assessing tone, "That was unpleasant. I'm not sure if I'll survive if I'm hit with a few more of those," Skulker gave a wicked grin that sent shivers down the three's spines, "First task would be to get rid of that pesky ranger so you don't get that chance again."

"Like hell you will!" Anne snarled. She jumped between her husband and the monstrous man, "I'll die before I let you touch him!"

Skulker seemed completely unfazed, "Oh, so you know the rest of the plan."

Glen yelled to Anne, "Can you keep him busy? I'm going to try to charge an attack."

Mark joined beside her and the two nodded before they dashed towards Skulker. He nimbly dodged around sword, fists, and feet. It also didn't go unnoticed that the more he fought, the hungrier Skulker looked. Hungry for bloodshed.

"Now!" Glen yelled and the two jumped to the side as he released his charged blast and a huge beam of yellow energy blasted towards the hunter. Skulker's evil smirk remained even when he was swallowed up in the light. The light continued to blast for a few more seconds, and when it was done, the only thing that remained was a crater. Glen looked utterly exhausted.

Anne's eyes widened when she noticed the disturbed ground where Skulker stood before, "He dug into the ground! Mark! Cover Glen!"

Mark nodded and jumped in front of Glen, only to be backhanded by an iron hard gauntlet. He was sent flying and bounced a couple times before he landed in a heap several meters away. Skulker admired his work for a few seconds before he swatted Anne out of the air as well and she was sent over by Mark.

Once both fighters were down for the moment, Skulker turned around quickly and grabbed Glen by the throat. It was easy because the archer was too tired to put up much of a fight. Skulker wasn't looking so hot either, though. He had several burns over his body and his left arm looked like it had been blown off, though there was no blood. Apparently his escape attempt was not as successful as they had believed.

With an angry roar, Skulker smashed Glen down into the ground and created a crater. Glen coughed up blood and groaned in pain. Skulker then released the body and a huge machete popped out of his wrist and with a swift movement, he plunged the knife down and through Glen's abdomen.

"No!" Anne yelled as she heard Glen began to garble as his mouth filled with blood. She slowly pulled herself to her feet, "I'll kill you, you sonovabitch!"

"Just a moment, He's got a few seconds left to live, so I need to make sure he actually dies."

Anne yelled out in fury as she launched herself at Skulker again with a newfound energy. She brought her sword down and Skulker dove to the side. She then reached for her barely living husband. That was as far as she got before she was backhanded again and sent back to Mark.

Mark was finally able to pull himself to his feet and he did his best to help Anne up. She slowly got to her hands and knees and Mark couldn't see her face, but he didn't feel like he had a need to. They probably shared the same grim look.

"I'm so sorry, Anne," he began desperately, "You told me to protect him and I just…"

Anne shook her head and interrupted in a wobbly voice, "I don't blame you, and neither would Glen. You tried and that's all that counts."

Mark did not voice his opinion that there were a few more things that counted. For instance, her husband and his recent friend had just been brutally murdered in cold blood, and it had been all his fault.

"And don't you dare blame yourself for this either. There was nothing you could do." Mark stopped his train of thought cold as he was met with the stubborn gaze of the woman who had become a good friend and ally. However, what pulled him up short was not the murderous glare she sent him, it was actually the glistening silver tracks that ran down her cheeks. In all his time he had known her, she did not seem to be the crying type.

Mark suddenly felt very guilty. Here, she had lost her husband and he was busy with selfish, self-centered thoughts. He, like most men, was unaware how to handle a crying woman, so he hugged her as she cried into his shoulder. After a moment, she pulled back and gave him a nod of thanks. Then she punched him on the shoulder and made him wince.

"Are you quite finished?"

Anne snarled at Skulker's uncaring question that dripped with condescension, "I will avenge him! You won't handle us so easily now that you only have one arm!"

Skulker deadpanned, "I've been doing a bang up job so far."

Anne just got angrier, "Mark, follow my lead!"

She launched at Skulker as he jabbed at her with his machete as if he were wielding a fencing sword, though it was clear that he wasn't used to using the weapon like that. She easily dodged and/or blocked his sloppy swipes, but he also dodged hers. Mark launched a flaming kick at Skulker's head, only to be dodged almost effortlessly by the hunter as he simultaneously dodged Anne's swing. He swiped his arm and the two jumped back.

"He just won't stop moving! I can't get a clean hit!" Mark hissed to her.

Anne winced at her recent bruises and grazes, "I know, but I think I have a plan. It's kind of only a one shot deal though, so make your next attack count."

Mark nodded and tried to jump away, but Anne's hand on his arm stopped him. He made to protest, but the look she gave him stopped him.

"Whatever happens, I need you to keep moving. I need you to promise me." She said almost desperately

Mark nodded again "I promise," his adrenaline filled mind not completely recognizing the resignation in the woman's voice.

He took off his head band and hovered his hand over his Vid Box and the symbol of a bird spreading its wings appeared. He placed the newly acquired racing helmet on his head. Anne gave one more nod before she engaged Skulker again. The hunter seemed more than happy to comply with her desire for a battle, though he also didn't seem to be against taunting.

"You're really going to keep doing this? Are you familiar with the term 'act of futility'? This is actually a very accurate description of what you're doing right now." He emphasized his statement by pointing at her menacingly with his machete.

"Ever heard of Hubris?" Anne returned pleasantly, "This is actually a very accurate description of what you're doing right now. Mark, Now!"

Skulker knew that the boy was sneaking up behind him, so he moved to jump away, but he suddenly felt a jolt from in front of him. When he turned to see what happened, he found himself unable to move because his machete was now lodged in the abdomen of the girl in front of him.

She coughed, then gave him a bloody smile, "I told you I'd kill you, you sonovabitch."

"Falcon Punch!" Suddenly, Skulker exploded into pieces as Mark tore through him with a flame covered fist. It was now that Mark noted, rather unnecessarily, that Skulker was only a robot.

When the smoke cleared, Mark cheered, "We did it!"

He slowly looked around him to congratulate Anne. He may have not seen what Anne had done, but whatever it was, it worked. Even so, he still did not see his battle partner anywhere. However, he did notice a new blood trail that led away from him and to the crater where they had left Glen. He tiredly shuffled to the crater and started to feel a bit queasy when he peeked over the edge.

There, at the bottom of the crater, lay the married couple that he had met not two days ago. The two had identical wounds in their abdomens. Anne's cheeks were still moist from tears and she had grasped her husband's hand as the two stayed together in death.

Mark turned away in shame.

 **End**

 **I'm still a little uncertain if I did that right. I'm concerned that I might have invested too much into the introduction of the two OCs. It was actually supposed to be in homage to Mark as well. I saw a play through of a flash game where mark played as a guy in a post-apocalyptic world. The guy got shot, and Mark said that there was no connection between the player and the character, so he was unaffected by the guy's death. That was why I tried to establish a connection between the couple and the readers before I brutally killed them. I hope it worked.**


	5. Chapter 5

Mark tiredly dragged himself through the purple door with one last regretful look over his shoulder. After he had cleaned himself up, he had buried the couple together and stowed the three keys away. They felt heavy in his pocket. He pulled himself through the door and looked around.

Even in his tired state, he dragged together four rocks and placed them in a sort of grave for the two fallen warriors and placed it atop Anne's buried keys. Once he knew it was stable and wouldn't fall over any time soon, he let himself collapse back in exhaustion. He felt his eyes shut against his desires.

He then descended into a nightmare filled slumber, fueled by his newfound guilt and horror. His exhaustion kept him from waking up, so he had to re-watch as Anne and Glen died for him on a continuous loop. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, he awoke. He could no longer feel the lingering wisps of fatigue, but he still couldn't say he felt completely rejuvenated. Even if his nightmare riddled rest may have been horrifying, Mark now knew that he could take something away from this experience.

Even with the crushing guilt of another's life on his hands, he felt his resolve harden. He had entered this deadly situation with the impression that it was just like every other game. He figured that he could just bullshit his way through it as he did with the dragon and the lunch lady.

He scoffed inwardly. He had been arrogant. And for that, he had unknowingly sacrificed two people who had put their complete trust in him. They had trusted him to help them through trouble and he had failed them. He shook off his dark thoughts with a determined grunt. He had promised Anne that he would not blame himself. He unconsciously clutched the scrap of paper in his pocket as he thought of them.

From this point on, if he were presented with the opportunity, he would do everything in his power to make sure that no one else would ever have to die for him again. He sat in the small clearing for who knows how long, just catching his breath and recuperating as best he could before he had to move on to fight the next and hopefully last battle.

Finally, with a heavy sigh, he pulled himself up and started on his way to the door emblazoned with a genie lamp. As he entered, he hadn't even made it five steps before the door behind him slammed closed and exploded into smoke. He now found himself in a huge room. It looked ominously like a coliseum, even with a blue and purple spiral patterned rug with Arabic tapestries that lined the baby blue walls.

More smoke exploded in front of him, and when it cleared, it revealed a woman with long black hair with her bangs parted to cover one of her eyes. She wore a blue two piece dress and a metal chiffon. She floated front of him with a swishing genie tail. "Greetings, mortal, my name is Desiree, and I'll be your opponent."

"Well, I'll be. I have to go up against an actual genie," Mark whistled, but then he paused, "Wait. Does that mean that you grant wishes?" Mark was so far in thought that he didn't notice Desiree cringe, however, she quickly covered it up with a menacing look and a vindictive smile.

"You're free to try, but bear in mind that every wish that I have granted has ended up badly for the wisher. In fact..." She trailed off with an extravagant wave of her hands and she was surrounded by mystical smoke, "These would be a few of my wishes' past." The smoke disappeared and the two of them were surrounded by a small army of creatures.

Mark did his best not to gape. There were fairy tale demons, dragons, skeletons, you name it. If someone thought it up, it was probably here in some form. Mark released a small "meep" and as though it were a starting gun, the monsters pounced at the sound. The first indistinguishable monster leapt at Mark, teeth bared as it went for his throat. Mark's hand hovered over the vid box on his shoulder and a symbol of three triangles appeared and mark pulled out a blue hilted sword with a glowing silver blade. With a swift movement, he cut right through the creature, bisecting it and causing it to explode into a cloud of green dust.

Before he could even smirk in victory, another creature had jumped at him with a snarl. He quickly rolled out of the way and took it out with a back swing. Mark didn't have any time to think as he had to jump to the left to avoid being crushed by another falling body. Even though he avoided the initial attack, his dodge was not as successful as he would have liked. He hissed and resisted the urge to cradle his arm, which now sported a long shallow cut. He silently cursed. He had been getting used to fighting on a team, but now that Glen and Anne were... No. He refused to finish that thought.

With his inner turmoil raging, he was unable to stop the monster that came up behind him. It pulled him into a bear hug and he let out a soft grunt as it tried to crush him. Since it was behind him, he didn't get that good of a look, but from its arms and the way it sounded when it moved, Mark would have guessed that it was some sort of giant bush monster.

Mark threw his head back, and it also felt like he hit a bush, but even so, the monster still reacted. It let go of Mark, and he swung his sword to dispatch it. As he did so, he found his assumption correct. He was unable to question it because he had to quickly activate his sword's spin ability as the monsters tried to dog pile him.

Meanwhile, Desiree watched on as her little wishes attempted to tear apart the little mortal below her. She couldn't help the raise in her bloodlust when she saw the few flecks of blood that occasionally flew from her victim's injury. Finally, after she saw it again, she couldn't hold back anymore. The power that Technus had provided her may have been infinite while she was in this plane of existence, but he had given her so many restrictions. Currently, the most bothersome was the order for no brutal deaths. She shrugged off the thought and gestured for her right hand man to attack.

"Go my minion, bring me his head!" She ordered. A decapitation wasn't brutal as long as she left the body alone, she inwardly reasoned. Down on the battlefield, Mark suddenly grew very nervous when the fighting stopped. Now normally, this would call for a sigh of relief, but the fact that the monsters stopped in a circle around him made him extremely uneasy. It didn't help when a figure stepped out of the crowd.

However, after studying the figure, Mark was severely underwhelmed. He was met with a nerdy, dark skinned teenager with thick-rimmed glasses and a red beret. He was wearing a plain yellow long sleeved shirt and cargo jeans, giving an overall appearance of a weakling. Although, after another glance, Mark noticed how some of the monsters shrunk away in a mixture of fear and reverence. Mark inwardly groaned. This was going to be some Jekyll and Hyde shit wasn't it? Taking into account his past experience with videogames, the nerd, Tucker if the whispers in the crowd were anything to go by, was probably going to turn into a giant monster or something.

His musings were interrupted by Desiree's sudden shout of attack, and Mark unexpectedly found himself on the receiving end of lightning fast jabs, courtesy of the kid. He blocked what he could, but a few still got past, and they stung like a motherfucker. What's worse, Desiree was floating above them, gloating.

Mark tuned into her rant about half way through, "-having fun with Tucker. You know, he's my most powerful minion, seeing as I came closest to world domination when I originally had him by my side." She paused, "Of course, I granted that wish right before Technus gave me this opportunity."

Mark was only half listening because Tucker fought in a very measured, mechanical way. This meant that if he wasn't paying his full attention, he knew he would get creamed. Since the fighting style was so measured, it had very few openings. However, the openings he did see were very repetitive. For instance... There! Tucker overextended on his left punch. Mark quickly hovered his hand over the Vid Box and drew out a katana and quick drew that motherfucker. Tucker howled in pain as his arm was covered in cuts from the sharp blades of energy that flew from the katana.

Desiree giggled conspiratorially above him, "Oh, you shouldn't have done that." Before Mark could question the genie on her odd statement, he was sent flying by a punch to the face. He soared a few feet before he bounced and then rolled a couple times and stopped on his belly. He slowly pushed himself to his hands and knees with a cough, and when he finally regained his bearings, he looked up to see that Tucker wasn't a nerdy kid anymore. Gone was the shrimp, only to be replaced by what looked to be a giant troll, and Mark wasn't too sure that he liked the way that said troll was raising its fist... SMASH!

"I so called it!" Mark shrieked as he momentarily ignored his fatigue and frantically dodged out of the way of the fist, "I knew that that little bastard was gonna go all Hyde on me! I knew it!"

Desiree gave a sarcastic slow clap, "Bravo. You're a genius. Now die."

Mark dodged to the side again, "No thank you! I am very much happy with being alive." He barely scrambled out of the way of another meaty fist with a huff, "Damn. I wish I weren't so tired, this would be so much easier!"

"So you have wished it, so shall it be!" Mark watched in astonishment as Desiree went into a sort of trance after she shouted that. She raised a glowing hand and Mark's body began to glow as well.

Suddenly, he felt completely fine. He blinked incredulously. A genie? Wishes? There was no way it was that easy. He looked up to Desiree. She shook her head in confusion and lifted her hand to massage her temple all while in a daze. He shrugged. It was worth a shot. "I wish I had all three keys from this level and I was back outside in the field in front of the door to the next level!"

"So you have wished it, so shall it be!" Mark was utterly bewildered when he suddenly found himself out in the field, holding the three keys. He gave a flat look to no one in particular, "You've got to be fucking kidding me," he paused, then grabbed his head in realization, "Why didn't I wish myself home?!"

 **End**

 **Poor Mark. The heat of battle really got to him. This was originally part of the last chapter. I felt the need to break the two apart because I wanted the last chapter to completely sink in before I put this part in. Now that I killed off my OCs, I have given Mark more a resolve and now any out of charactering may be explained away. If I only had this from the beginning. Please don't judge too harshly on my characterization of Mark. I find it more difficult to write someone who is living. Fictional characters are more predictable.**


	6. Chapter 6

Mark didn't even get a moment of horror at his realization because another video screen floated down and Technus appeared, his prerecorded speech drowning out any complaints Mark would have had. He quickly stowed the keys and turned to the screen

"Greetings, human. Due to the fact that my comrades say that I give my plans away when I talk to you all, I have been muscled into making this recording," he paused and pouted, "even if I am the master of all technology and the only reason for their success in the first place," he added with a hint of petulance.

The screen began to ascend as Technus continued to talk down to Mark, "and because I am so evil, I have decided to show the futility of your situation. I have timed my video to come out after your third battle. Therefore, you are exhausted from your last three battles."

Mark tested out his limbs and he did not actually feel that bad. That accidental wish he made with Desiree seemed to still be in effect. Even so, he listened on. "This means that you can do nothing as I dangle your escape right in front of you!"

By the time that Technus finished his longwinded buildup, Mark found himself having to crane his neck, because Technus's screen had floated six meters above him. A metal door appeared and floated beside the screen. Without prompt, the door opened upwards and revealed a hallway lined with pipes.

"That's right, this door leads to the outside world. If only you could get to it. I just wish I could be there to see the expression of utter defeat that is no doubt on your face. Whether this is a full team of three, or a lone survivor, you are all doomed the same." Mark looked up at the door thoughtfully. Because he was fully energized from his last fight, he could probably get to the door if he acted fast. Even so, he didn't know how long he had, so he moved frantically.

He hovered his hand over his Vid Box until a red spring appeared in his hand. He threw it to the ground and jumped onto it and was sent flying upward with a loud boing. He reached the door just as Technus was wrapping up his monologue. He pivoted his body and rolled through the opening just as the door crashed down behind him.

He slowly stood as his eyes adjusted to the meager illumination coming from the red hot pipes that lined the walls. He was in what appeared to be a long endless hallway. He made his way slowly and carefully to avoid contact with the no doubt scalding pipes, being on constant alert for any steam that might spray out and blast him in the face.

After what felt like forever, he reached a hole in the wall that looked as if it had been blown out by an explosion, this was shown by the gnarled pipes that were bent at weird angles and liberally peppered with burn marks.

Figuring it was a better lead than none at all, he shrugged and crouched to go through the hole, mindful not to get caught on any of the shrapnel that was sticking out of the wall.

Finally, he pulled himself out and into a shorter hallway that led to a more menacing door with a yellow and black biohazard sign. He looked to the other path in the hall only to be met with a huge pile of rubble that blocked his escape.

He shrugged and turned back towards the diagonally striped door. When he entered, he found himself in another long hallway. This one had a high ceiling, the hall occasionally cut off with equally large bulkheads. At least, they would cut off the hallway, but it looked as though something had bulldozed through the large metal doors.

The hall looked big enough to fit an oil tanker and the holes smashed into the door reached close to the ceiling, so Mark did not like where this was going. He also took note of the large footprints on the ground with growing dread.

As Mark followed through the hole in the door, he took this time to wonder why in the world he was going towards a no doubt giant monster that would probably try to kill and/or maim him as soon as it saw him. He looked back the way he came and shrugged, probably similar to what he left.

He followed the trail of destruction until he came to a fully intact bulkhead. His logical side told him that the monster must have gotten through this one before it closed. However, this also meant that this was probably where it stopped, so it would be on the other side of the bulkhead. He decided not to open the bulkhead, which would probably cause noise and alert the monster of his presence. He swallowed thickly and made his way to the maintenance entrance.

Mark slowly creaked the door open, freezing when he was met with a room covered in blood. He quickly stepped back and closed the door, taking a few calming breaths. Sure he had seen plenty of rooms covered in blood in his gameplays, but somehow, actually being surrounded by the real thing just made him feel nauseous. When Glen and Anne were injured, the blood was very centralized, so not even that prepared him. Mark took one final deep breath, ignoring the coppery smell that he inhaled. No more wimpiplier. He was doing this so that no one else would have to suffer.

Finally, he was able to harden his resolve and he pushed the door the rest of the way open. He felt his stomach drop to his feet when he saw that the blood converged onto a small body in the back corner of the room. It looked like a child, a little boy. He couldn't have been more than seven, and looked as if he had had something heavy dropped on him. It was at this time that Mark made the very trivial observation that even with the apparent presence of bodily fluids like blood, there was absolutely no gag reflex, so this game must have lacked the programing for throwing up his lunch. How fortunate.

From what Mark knew, there were no NPCs in this game, so that meant that this was an actual kid that had been injured. Mark quickly knelt down and checked for a pulse. Somehow, the boy still seemed alive, if barely. He quickly hovered his hand over the Vid Box and a med kit appeared. He may have been too late to help Anne and Glen, but he would help this boy as best he could.

Once he finally gathered himself, in classic videogame fashion, he smacked the boy in the face with the medkit. After a short pause, the boy exploded into light, and the glare revealed that the boy had been completely fixed up and his clothes were completely restored. Mark wasn't too fond of the fact that the blood was still covering the room, though.

Mark stood up and had a final onceover of the boy. He looked about six and was wearing a florescent green hooded sweatshirt that was a bit too big, so the sleeves fell down over his hands. He was wearing blue jean high-water cargo pants with black ankle converse and tube socks pulled up. When he looked at the boy's face, he couldn't help the feeling that the blue eyes lacked the innocents that was normally found with such a child, and so he could only guess that this person was actually older than their avatar. Finally, it was the haircut that made Mark double-take. It was green on top and black on the sides, similar to his own in all but color. All through his scrutiny, Mark couldn't help but feel that he knew this boy. However, his growing theory gained more weight when the boy spoke.

The boy, unaware of Mark's scrutiny, spoke with gratitude, "Thanks for the help. It was not fun getting stepped on by that asshole."

Mark couldn't help but gape at the familiar Irish accent. He knew it was a long shot, but he was almost desperate for human contact since he lost the others, "Are you Jack?" he asked hesitantly.

The boy looked at him funnily, but after he glanced up to Mark's own hairstyle, his eyes widened in realization and he pointed a sleeve covered finger, "Mark? Is that you?" he looked taken aback at him before his eyes lit up in recognition, "Holy shit! You have no idea how happy I am to see a familiar face!"

Mark was also glad to see his green haired compatriot, but there was something else that needed to be addressed. He examined his friend for a second before he burst out laughing, causing his younger companion to puff his cheeks out in a pout. Finally, after an unreasonable amount of time, he wiped away an invisible tear of mirth and said, "I know that this game lets you change your age, but why in the world would you choose to be six?"

Jack huffed and crossed his arms in irritation, "It was just supposed to be for fun. I keep telling people that I'm really a six year old stuck in a grown man's body, so I asked Twitter what they thought of the avatar system for this game and they said that I should make my avatar reflect my inner child. They gave me the suggestion to make him a six year old. I did, and that Technus guy pulled me in and I was stuck like this," he huffed in irritation. However, his annoyance did not end there because Mark was covering his mouth in an obvious attempt to stifle his laughter. Jack stomped his foot and crossed his arms like a petulant child.

Mark snickered, "So how'd you even end up down here," he paused as the situation hit him again and he swallowed thickly, gesturing weakly to the blood explosion where he had originally found the green head, "like that?"

With that, the jovial atmosphere ended and Jack suddenly looked panicked, "Oh, shit! Mark, there were two other people that were traveling with me. I told them to run, and I would distract the giant, but when I looked back from yelling to them, the giant stepped on me. This is not good, I don't know how long I've been out!"

Mark nodded resolutely, "Right! Let's go! No one else is going to die on my watch!" he ran towards the next room, completely missing the shocked and concerned glance he got from Jack at his comment.

The two ran through the next door and found themselves in what looked like a roman colosseum. Mark did indeed see the giant that Jack had mentioned. He could only see the back, but it was enough to tell that the giant was wearing a toga of sorts and had a horn atop his head.

It was currently stomping on what looked to be a small building. The structure was holding up surprisingly well considering the fact that it looked like it had been hastily built from logs and twigs.

Mark was going to run out and challenge the giant, but he stopped when he felt a tug at his pant leg. He looked down to see Jack giving him a pointed look. Right. He wasn't alone anymore. He had a team to fight with again.

"Alright, what's the plan?" Mark said.

Jack shrugged, "I'm not entirely sure since I don't know what your avatar can do. However, let's go with a basic strategy. Do you have a way of covering me from a range? I only have melee weapons, so if you could give me covering fire, then I might have a better chance of taking him down."

Mark shrugged. Normally he would be against sending out a six year old kid, but this was clearly a man in a child's body, so he had to have faith in his ally or they would never get anywhere. He hovered his hand over the Vid Box and his hand turned into the Megabuster again.

Jack's eyes widened, "How did you-."

Mark shook his head quickly, "Not now! I'll explain later."

Jack gave Mark a funny look, "Alright, sure. Whatever."

Mark readied his cannon, and Jack started running towards the giant. Mark didn't see how good that would do since Jack was moving so slowly due to his short legs, that is until…

"SPEED IS KEY!" Jack suddenly yelled. He disappeared into a green blur and blasted towards the giant, the war cry caught the giant's attention and it turned towards the oncoming attacker. Mark cringed when he saw that the giant was, in actuality, a cyclops. Its single eye was all gross and inflamed. Even so, that one eye locked onto Jack and it brought up its club to swing down on top of him, but Mark sent a few energy blasts towards it and caused the cyclops to recoil back as its arm was blasted back down with the force of the small explosion.

Once the cyclops regained its bearing, it was already too late, Jack had finally made it to him. Mark was surprised to see that Jack had glowing blue blades of energy sticking out of his sleeves, though his hands remained out of sight. Jack ran in a circle around the cyclops. Mark was unable to keep up with Jack because he was moving too fast. It just looked like a blue and green neon circle surrounded the Cyclops as it howled in a combination of rage and pain. It wasn't too hard to figure out why as cuts began to appear all over the Cyclops's body.

The Cyclops had seemed to have had enough and it roared and brought its hand down to stop the speeding child, but Mark released another volley of energy blasts and caused the monster to stumble back again.

Finally, Jack seemed to have been satisfied with the damage he had done and he sped up and jumped atop the Cyclops's head. The giant was understandably unhappy with this turn of events and reached up to grab Jack, only to recoil and howl in pain as Mark sent another barrage towards the hands as they rose. Jack now stood atop the monster's head, and the daggers seemed to have disappeared beneath his sleeves, and the air started to shimmer around both of Jack's bare hands until with a final swing of his arms, Jack boxed the Cyclops's ears and a huge shockwave shot out. The beast's yowl of pain faded as it turned to smoke and disappeared.

Jack landed gracefully on the ground and Mark ran up to him, "How'd you do that?"

Jack rubbed the back of his neck with his sleeves covering his hands again, "It was another joke suggested by Twitter. I put all of my stats into speed and defense, so I'm really fast, but I don't give much of a beating with one or two hits. My strategy is to overwhelm my opponent with speed. Finally, for that final move, I attack until I reveal a weak point, then in homage to Shadow of the Colossus, I release a final heavy attack while clinging to the enemy. It's a shame that I can't use reflected light to find the weak point so that I can just get it over with, but it was the closest that I could get."

Mark whistled, "Damn, that's pretty awesome."

 **End**

 **Is my humor within the fights inappropriate? Alright! So I have finally hit the end of my prewritten work. The rest of my story will not be as heavily edited. Sorry if the quality drops. Also, I would like to clarify that I know even less about Jacksepticeye than I do about Markiplier. I just used his RYC videos to get a read on his character. My favorite question/answer was to "How does one meme?" I just find him extremely adorable, even though I'm pretty sure he's older than me. He's like a lost puppy looking for friends. It's so cute. In a non-patronizing way, of course. He's still pretty boss. It was actually a last moment thing to put him in. *snrt* punch the review button in the face! Nah, just doesn't have the same ring to it.**


	7. Chapter 7

Mark made his way to the house and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so he and Jack shared a look before Mark slowly edged the door open, although Mark had to take pause when a gun rose to meet his face.

Mark was surprisingly unfazed, rolling his eyes, "Relax, it's not as if a monster would knock on the door."

"You'd be surprised," a girl's voice answered back harshly. "The monsters here are very smart. That coupled with their knowledge on humans, I wouldn't put it past them."

Mark couldn't help but notice that she had not lowered her gun, "Well, I'm a human, so would you mind putting that gun down?" he asked pleasantly.

"No way. I'm not gonna risk it until you provide proof that you are who you say," she said coldly.

Mark chuckled nervously, "I'm friends with Jack and I helped him to defeat the cyclops."

The tension seemed to thicken and a boy's voice came from the other side of the gun, "I saw Jack get crushed by that cyclops. Nice try."

The gun began to whirr to life as a green light started to glow in the barrel of the gun. Mark began to babble nonsense, trying to explain himself, but from the continued increase in pitch of the buzz of the gun in front of him, he could tell that his diplomatic approach was less than successful.

"Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon!" Jack suddenly yelled behind Mark.

Mark blinked in confusion and turned a curious look back to Jack, only to startle when a black blur ran past him. He tried to make the girl out the best he could, but he didn't really get a good look at her until she stopped and kneeled down to look Jack over.

She looked about fourteen and was a regular Goth chick with a small black ponytail pulled up from the top of her head. She had a black sleeveless belly shirt with a purple circle on the chest and a green and black skirt over purple leggings that were tucked into black combat boots.

"Jack! Oh thank God! I thought that you had been killed!"

Mark looked at the two in confusion, but decided to address his friend, "Jack, what's going on?"

Jack gave him a thumbs up and smiled, "She's one of the people that I told you about when you first found me."

Mark rolled his eyes, "I figured as much. What I meant was why she reacted so strongly."

The girl stood up indignantly, " _She_ can speak for herself," she said to Mark with a sneer.

Mark resisted the urge to roll his eyes again, but did put up his hands in a placating manner, "Well, excuse me," he drawled out, "You're free to answer for yourself, but most people introduce themselves to me before they try to bite my head off."

The girl huffed, "My name is Sam, and I was just concerned because we thought he was dead. Me and Tucker were extremely worried."

Mark blinked, but turned to Jack, who seemed unable to meet his eyes, "I see," he mused aloud and he turned back to her, "So you're one of Jack's teammates?"

Sam scoffed, "Oh please, our third team member was captured. We just helped Jack to escape Technus's minion and he decided to tag along with us. We were originally going to go hunt down the maniac who was responsible for this mess and save our friend from capture, but we ran across Jack and saved him from a life and death situation. May be you should be more thankful that we saved your friend from dying!"

Mark looked unimpressed, "I guess you must be one for the dramatics."

Jack started to look more and more uncomfortable as the two eyed each other in distain.

Sam growled, "You asshole! Where do you get off-,"

Mark scoffed to interrupt her, "-telling it like it is?"

Jack looked utterly mortified, "He glanced pleadingly back to the house and said, "Tucker is there anything you can do to help here?"

Mark heard the name Tucker again, and he couldn't help but wonder why it seemed so familiar.

However, he wasn't given much time to think on it because his thoughts were interrupted by another's interjection from within the house, "She probably just thinks your accent is hot and she doesn't want to admit it."

"Tucker!" Mark was once again passed by a black blur as Sam roared and threw herself into the doorway of the building and there was a lot of crashes heard intertwined with Tucker's yelps and shouts. A dust cloud drifted lazily out of the door as Sam exited, clapping the dust off of her hands as she yelled over her shoulder, "Stop whining you have more durability in this game, so that shouldn't have hurt at all."

"I know, I know, but it's the principal of the thing." Tucker spoke as he exited the door with a cough, and Mark immediately jumped into a fighting stance as he realized why Tucker's name was so familiar. His fight or flight kicked in as Desiree's minion stepped out of the door.

Sam and Jack did not miss his sudden hostility and the Goth girl got into her own fighting stance while Jack looked on confused. She pulled out a glowing green dagger while she wielded her gun in the other hand. "I knew he couldn't be trusted!" Sam yelled, "He was just waiting for us to drop our guard! Jack, it's like I told you. These bastards can transform into people you know to trick you."

Mark suddenly felt very nervous as Jack reluctantly got into his own fighting stance and Tucker dropped into a different stance than Desiree's minion used. Maybe he had jumped the gun on this one.

Of course, he did not get a chance to think on this idea, because he had to quickly jump to the side to dodge a fast high kick from the girl. Before he could retaliate, he had to roll further as Jack dropped down where he stood. He jumped back and was about to pull out a weapon, but again, he had to move because he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of a huge blast of yellow light. With a glance to his third opponent, he realized that Tucker was holding a gun similar to Sam's. The barrel was leaking yellow smoke as it remained trained on him as he dodged.

Mark lost his footing as he jumped and rolled a few times. When he finally regained his bearings, he saw that the three had come together and Jack looked at him nervously while Sam and Tucker started charging their guns with him in their crosshairs.

He shrieked and ran as blasts of green and yellow rained all around him, "Jack! C'mon man! I'm Mark! Really I am! Just let me explain!"

His cries went unheeded and Jack seemed to have gained his resolve, because he suddenly appeared in front of him and Mark squealed as he threw himself to the side at the last second to dodge a slash from his green haired friend. "C'mon! I didn't actually attack you! I got into a stance cuz I thought Tucker was Desiree's minion!"

He shrieked as another yellow and green barrage barely missed him, but it suddenly got really quiet. The projectiles seemed to have stopped, but Sam and Tucker still had their guns trained on him.

Once the dust settled, Sam eyed him suspiciously, "What do you mean?"

Mark did not waste his chance to explain and spoke quickly, "One of my battles was against Desiree, this genie, and she summoned a bunch of weird monsters. When she finally brought out her most powerful minion, it ended up being a Jeckle-and-Hyde-like little bastard that looked like it was modeled after Tucker."

Sam still seemed suspicious, but she nodded then spoke with caution, "Alright. Prove it. But if you do anything I don't like, consider yourself Swiss cheese"

Mark cut his eyes to the left then the right. He leaned over and whispered something in Jack's ear.

Jack suddenly blurted out a single, "HA!" then he looked over to the two others. "He's Mark alright. No one else on the internet could know that, because we never posted it online."

Sam and Tucker shared a look. There was a silent communication between the two as they argued through glances.

Finally, Sam's shoulder's sagged and she turned to Mark. "Alright," she said tiredly. She eyed Mark with a scowl, "I still don't trust you completely, but both Jack and Tucker vouched for you, so I will back down for now. But if you give me even one reason, I will shoot you."

Mark put up his hands in mock fear, "Woah woah woah. Calm down. We're all friends here. We've all got the same goal."

Sam growled and started walking away, "Don't push it."

Mark's eyebrows reached his hairline and he shrugged and turned to the more agreeable two, "So Jack, how'd you get roped into it with these two?" he gestured to Sam and Tucker.

Jack chuckled nervously, "These guys saved my ass. I had just been ditched by my two asshole teammates and I was hiding behind a rock as some crazy little pirate wannabe kid kept shooting at me with cannonballs. Since I'm only a close range fighter, I couldn't really fight back."

Mark looked incredulous, "Why in the world would your teammates ditch you if teams were key to survival?"

Jack growled in irritation, "Those dumb fucks thought I was useless because I was a child avatar. They ditched me at the first battle. Luckily for me, Sam and Tucker found me in time to kick the shit out of that punk ass kid and while I didn't quite see what happened, I did see a flash of blue light and the kid was gone with Tucker holding a smoking soup container. I chose not to question it, and I would suggest you do the same. Or at least wait until we get out."

Mark raised a finger to question a few things, but paused a moment in thought before he closed his mouth again and lowered his hand. His shoulders fell in resignation. "So what was with the warm welcome?" he asked after a pause.

Jack winced and scratched his chin, "Sorry about that. They were in a bit of a tiff before they found me. They lost one of their teammates in a raid gone wrong. Apparently, the three had escaped their own levels and were trying to stop Technus from the inside."

Mark stroked his chin in thought and rose his eyebrows, "Oh, is that so?"

To his side, Tucker answered for Jack, "Sorry for that, dude, but our friend Danny had just been taken by Technus and we were still kind of on edge. You see, not too long after our failed raid, one of Technus's partners in crime, Bertrand, disguised himself as Danny and tried to lead us into a trap. That might have contributed to our…" he trailed of as his eyes darted around the room in attempt to find a suitable word, "Harsh reception."

Mark resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He would have used a more appropriate description, like needlessly hostile, but that was just him. Although his distaste may have dropped a tad. Their greeting might have been a bit more reasonable since they were fooled before. He still didn't like it, though. He sucked in a breath through his teeth as he processed Tucker's story, "Wow. Technus must really dislike people escaping his game."

Tucker shrugged nonchalantly, "I would probably chock it up to the fact that Sam, Danny and I have been trying to stop him for months."

Jack interrupted, "Wait! I was under the impression that you guys just escaped your own levels!"

Mark blinked and his eyebrows shot up, "And the description of the game said that this game got new management only a few weeks ago, how could you fight him for months?"

Tucker remained nonchalant, "Well, we were never actually part of this game in the first place. We actually followed him in here because we were trying to stop Technus before he even started this ridiculous scheme."

Mark rose an eyebrow, "What, is he supposed to be some kind of supervillain while you guys are superheroes trying to stop him?" he then began to laugh obnoxiously to show just how ridiculous he found the suggestion.

When he got no reaction from the others, he paused and eyed the two suspiciously. Jack looked a bit nervous, and Tucker just looked sheepish. Mark paused to think about the past experience that he had. The suspicious behavior of each "boss" that he fought. Then the mention of both Tucker and Sam in two separate scenarios. Finally, Desiree's mention of her 'failed' world domination scheme. Mark's eyebrows met his hairline, "Holy shit! You guys are actual superheroes!" he threw his arms up, "Yeah! We get to save the world!"

Sam snorted in front of him, " _YOU_ won't be doing anything. We've been at this long enough. We don't want to get civilians involved."

Mark looked indignant, "We _civilians_ took down a giant cyclops that you two _professionals_ were running scared from. You don't really have any place to say."

Sam snarled, "Listen, we know what we're doing, we've done plenty before. We can handle this!"

Mark's heckles rose again, and he was about to spit out a snarky retort, but he found his sight blocked from the Goth by a red beret.

Tucker had stepped between the two and he was frantically waving his hands to calm her down. "Listen Sam, He's got a point. The two of them were extremely helpful when it came to busting us out of the situation. Just think; maybe if we have extra manpower, Technus will be caught off guard and we can save Danny. I think that the cyclops might have proven a bit too much to handle. With Danny gone, we're short our heavy hitter, so we could kinda use the help."

Sam remained angry for a few seconds, but finally, after what seemed like an eternity, her shoulders fell in resignation and she turned to Tucker with a pleading look, "Alright. I'm sorry. I may have overreacted. It's just that Danny's never been captured and separated from us like this before. I just didn't want…" she trailed off and her eyes became watery. She turned away in a huff and stormed off to a corner of the coliseum to sit alone.

Mark looked at Tucker inquisitively, but luckily he didn't need to ask anything, because Tucker seemed to know exactly what he was thinking. With a tired sigh, Tucker took off his beret and ran a hand through his hair. He was quiet as he led the two to the house. The inside wasn't too flashy, but was definitely livable. There was even a sink and a stove. Tucker headed past them and pulled a kettle out of a cabinet. He then put water on to boil. When he was satisfied, he turned to address Mark's unasked question. "I'm sorry about that. Sam means well, but she can occasionally be a bit overbearing. I have a feeling that she blames herself for Danny's capture and is trying to push us away so that she won't get us captured as well."

Jack spoke up, "What makes you say that? She seemed relatively civil when we were working together."

Tucker shrugged and gave a tired smile as he began to prepare four mugs, "Before this whole incident, I was friends with a therapist and I was able to pick up a few things. From what I've seen, Sam has been under a lot of stress these past few days. She blamed herself for your supposed "death" and she felt powerless as the cyclops began to chase us. Our weapons did nothing and it ran through every barricade we set up. Luckily I was able to hack the game's code to make us this tiny but sturdy house. After months of dealing with this psycho, I've become familiar with his programing, so I was able to break the code. Then when Mark knocked on the door, she was terrified that it was another of Technus's minions. She was so hell bent on making sure that nothing happen to me that she acted a bit brash. I'm glad that no one got hurt, but your snark probably wasn't the best way to handle the situation," he turned his last statement towards the redhead.

Mark looked a bit sheepish, "You may be right. I'm sorry. I may have been a bit stressed as well."

Tucker shrugged and smirked, "I'm not really the one you need to apologize to."

Mark nodded in resignation, "You are right. I'll go talk to her."

Tucker nodded as the kettle began to whistle. He poured some water into a mug and stirred in some sugar. Once he added a tea bag, Tucker handed Mark the mug with a friendly smile, "Take this to her. She should find the tea relaxing."

Mark nodded stiffly. He moved outside and sat down next to the sulking girl. With a nervous chuckle he spoke, "I realize that I may have reacted a bit strongly to the situation. I was under a lot of stress, so I apologize. I understand that being sassy didn't really endear myself to you, but i wish to express my sincerest apologies. I swear I'm not that bad."

She huffed, but did not meet his eyes, "No, you're right. After some thought, I realized that I was wrongfully taking my anger out on you."

After a moment, Mark hesitantly sat beside her. When she showed no protest, he handed her the tea and she took it with a grateful nod.

She then began to stare into space as she sipped the tea. The silence was bordering on awkward and stretched out far longer than Mark was comfortable with, and he was almost about to stand and leave, but she stopped him as she began to talk slowly and steadily, "It's my fault he's gone, you know."

Mark blinked at her in confusion, though he felt like he might know where she was going with her statement, "What do you mean?"

Sam's shoulders fell, "It was my idea to raid that supply line, my idea to send Danny alone to investigate the explosions, my idea to have Danny fall into a trap and be captured, and my idea to leave Jack to fend off the monster only to watch him be crushed. I'm sorry for the hostility. I just don't want it to happen again. I appreciate you two saving us, really I do, but I really don't want to deal with the guilt of another's life on my hands."

Mark smiled sadly as she began to cry silent tears. He placed a consoling hand on her shoulder, "It's okay to worry. It's okay to be defensive for your teammates, hell, it's even okay to double check for imposters. What it's not okay to do is to alienate yourself from your friend and team."

She looked up at him in surprise, "How did you -" Mark smiled indulgently, "It wasn't too hard to see what you were doing. If you close yourself off, then you can't get anything done. No one can do it alone."

"But he could be dead and it's all my fa-,"

"My teammates _are_ dead because they protected me." Mark's interruption caused her mouth to snap shut and her eyes went wide as she stared at him incredulously, "Yup! We were actually starting to be friends. They promised to protect me and I promised to get them home to their family. Now here I am. They kept their promise and I did not. But you know what? I'm not going to let it get to me. They would not want me to mope and have their sacrifice be in vain," he subconsciously reached into his pocket and clutched the scrap of paper from Anne as he continued. "My friends are actually dead, but they wouldn't wat me to blame myself. Your friend might actually still be alive, but do you think that he would want you to blame yourself?"

By this time, Sam had finished her tea and she was looking at him with more consideration than before. He stood and dusted off his pants. He thrust a hand down to her with a smile, "So, are you ready?"

She eyed the hand for a second but then she gave a small sad smile, but then it morphed into a more natural looking cocky grin "You're right. There's no time to mope around when we've got a rescue to plan."

Mark grinned like an idiot and pulled her up and the two walked to the house with a newfound determination.

 **End**

 **Still my interpretation of Mark. He can be a bit obnoxious under distress. But Inspirational Mark is inspirational. He saw someone upset and inspired a more positive attitude. And now the two of Danny's crew have a reason to work with him. Also, Woo Jack!**

 **Now I am relatively new to the YouTube scene, so I cannot make any Game grumps quotes that Mark and Jack are occasionally want to do in their collaborations. I have seen a few of the game grumps videos, so I know they're funny, but I don't really know any reference besides "FUCKING LEFT!" I understand that my constant reassurances in my defense of lack of knowledge may get annoying after a while, but I honestly don't plan on having anymore. Just please bear in mind that this is a fan made story and I am no expert on characterization of actual nonfiction people.**

 **No more excuses! On to the next chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8

The moon rose high in the digital sky, the meager lighting illuminating a small group of buildings surrounded by a wall. The four shadows slowly crept towards the fort, using the darkness to hide their movements and the cricket chirps to mask their footsteps. Tucker typed away on his PDA, the soft sound of clicks being swept away in the wind. Jack walked backwards to cover the flank, hands prepared, but blades away. Sam and Mark led. Once Tucker signaled the other three, Jack headed up a hill to the left, and Tucker snuck to the right and hid by the wall nearby, but out of sight to set up his laptop for hacking.

The remaining two snuck up to the wall and found themselves at what looked to be a toll booth. Mark peeked up above the striped bar to see a green amorphous blob that sat in a chair. Since there were no eyes on the beast, Mark estimated which way it was facing by which way that the police cap atop its head faced. After the hat faced away, he motioned to Sam and she gave a nod before the two of them made their way through.

They walked around a few corners before there was crackling from their earphones and after a moment, Jack's Irish drawl came over the white noise, "Bravo team! Enemies approaching from the north of your position!"

Mark heard a rustling coming towards them. The two dove to the side and he frantically motioned to Sam to draw her attention to the ventilation shaft next to where they were crouching. The two of them quickly and quietly pulled at the nearby vent cover until it finally came off with a soft 'clink' and the two shuffled into the open vent, leaning the cover on the entrance.

Mark turned to look behind them in time to see a shadow pass over the slats of the cover. He made a face and the two of them crawled further until the vent led to another opening. Once they opened the cover, they dropped down into a warehouse.

The two snuck around a few boxes and paused as footsteps passed by. Once the sound fully faded away, they made it out of the warehouse and Sam pushed a button on her headset.

"Jack! How are we looking on hostiles?"

"You look good so far, but there is a building that will block you from my view after a few buildings." came the crackly response, "The command center should be just beyond that."

The two of them silently made their way down the long path. Mark looked around for anyone before he smiled mischievously. He turned to Sam and whispered a whiny, "So, what's the plan again? I'm still not sure what exactly is going on."

Sam answered with an angry hiss, "What is wrong with you?! We went over the plan several times already! Tucker found a hidden supply transfer, so our job is to sabotage it. Jack's gonna watch from above and warn us for cameras and Tucker's going to hack into the alarm system to shut it off. It was all covered in the briefing! Are you deaf or something?!"

Mark jerked back in surprise, and his teasing smile slipped away. Luckily, he had the mind to keep his reaction quiet, "What the hell, woman? I thought you got over your problem with me!"

Sam gave a derisive snort, "I thought I did too. I just didn't take in account that you were so stupid! It was so much easier when we only had Jack on our team. At least he can follow instructions!"

Mark's upper lip curled in distain, "It was only a joke, you bitch! Goddamn! Was that talk we had meaningless?!"

Sam rolled her eyes, "Sure, you made me feel better about myself, but that means squat when Danny's out there fighting for his life!"

Unfortunately, Sam had not bothered to keep the volume down and spotlights flashed on the two of them. Mark froze like a deer in a headlight and stared at the light in shock.

"You idiot! Run! Our plan failed. So it's a retreat! We can't afford to take risks!" Sam yelled at him. She gestured violently to Mark as she ran back through the way they came.

Mark snapped out of it and sprinted behind her as he heard the thunder of a stampede of feet behind him. He shot a panicked look at his temporary partner, but she was faced forward determinately as they made their way back to the ventilation shaft. However, they overlooked the fact that the ventilation shaft was really high up and there was no time to move something underneath it.

Mark looked at Sam, who was desperately searching for a fix to their situation, back to the entrance, that had growing shadows. He pulled himself up before he let out a breath and he held his hands down, "Step in my hands, I'll boost you up!"

For a split second, Sam's angry façade fell and she looked worried, "Don't die, Mark."

He nodded resolutely as he boosted her up.

When she finally pulled her leg up and was securely in the vent, she shot one last comment at him, "For the record, I think that this is a stupid plan."

He responded with a cheeky smile and she rolled her eyes in good nature and turned away.

Once she was completely out of sight, he hid behind a box and waited for the approaching mob.

His hastily constructed hiding spot held near nonexistent resistance when the large group of monsters entered the room. Within seconds, he had been tackled to the ground, restrained, and stripped of his Vid Box and earpiece. He craned his neck in an attempt to see his surroundings, but all he was able to make out was the bottom of white pants over black shoes before something connected to his temple and he saw stars and blacked out.

 **XxoxX**

Mark fought through the fog of unconsciousness and woke to the sound of grumbling. He found himself being dragged with a guard on each side, holding him up by his arms. He rolled his head around in an attempt to see where he was, but unfortunately, it was too hazy. Slowly, the grumbling started clearing up and Mark realized that his transport team was having a conversation. Giving it a few seconds, Mark was finally coherent enough to eavesdrop.

Guard 1 had a very deep and masculine voice as he said, "Wow. For how great Technus preaches himself to be, we sure do get a lot of escapees. This is, what, the fourth one?"

Guard 2 was more nasally, "Dude! Don't let him hear you say that! He may have terrible security and be an awful planner, but he's still got way more power than us in this plane of existence."

Guard 1 sighed in exasperation, "Even so, he should really invest in more cells. Even with Walker in charge, putting the prisoners in the same place is just asking for a prison break. Especially with Phantom in there."

Guard 2 adopted an incredulous tone, "Seriously? That guy came close to wiping out our entire fleet and nearly stopped Technus before he could even get this far in his plan. It was extremely lucky that we caught him when we did. I really doubt that we'd be able to do it again if he escaped. Why isn't he like, in maximum security or something?"

Guard 1 bobbed, so Mark guessed he was shrugging, "Again, Technus is bad at planning, and when Phantom finally escapes, I'm going to be halfway across the ghost zone."

Guard 2 sounded skeptical, "When? Don't you mean 'if?' I mean, we've even got indestructible ghost proof handcuffs on him. That's got to count for something, right?"

Mark was unable to hear a response, because he suddenly found himself being tossed into a room where a metal gate slammed behind him. He released a grunt as he landed hard against the cold stone floor. He quickly scrambled to his feet, though it was made difficult with his hands bound tightly behind his back. That conversation was very enlightening, but for now, he had to hold his position. The guards said that Phantom was here, meaning Danny, so that means that Tucker was right in his assumption. Now he just needed to bide his time. He turned to explore his new residence.

He started by pulling his arms under his legs and he switched his position so that his arms were no longer bound behind his back, but were in front of him instead. Once that was done he began to look around.

The cell was not lit very well at all, the only light coming from a barred window high up against the back wall. Mark stumbled deeper into the cell, careful not to trip on the indistinguishable shadows. Finally, he made it back and to the only light source. However, now that he was closer, he could make out another figure, a boy, huddled up and hiding under the light.

Mark cheerfully walked up to the boy, "Hey there! Anyone up for a rescue?"

The boy, Danny, snorted, "Well, sure, I'd love a rescue, but you look a little tied up at the moment," he gestured to Mark's bound wrists with his own cuffed hands.

Mark gave a flat look, "Oh ha-ha. You're so funny." He deadpanned.

Danny smirked, "I do try."

When the boy stepped into the light, his features became more defined. Danny had snow white hair and glowing green eyes. He wore what looked like a black jumpsuit with white gloves, belt and boots. Though the most notable feature was the emblem on his chest that looked like a stylized white "D"

Danny rolled his shoulders, "So how exactly did you plan to rescue me?" in an obvious attempt to humor Mark.

Mark smirked, "Well, you see, my friend Jack and two others said they were coming to save you."

Danny rose an eyebrow, "That'd be nice, but forgive me if I'm a little skeptical."

Mark smirked conspiratorially, but chose not to answer, instead choosing to change the subject, "It's a shame that there's no light in here. Where's the damn light switch."

Danny rolled his eyes, "Oh please. We're in a prison cell. There's no way that there's a light switch."

Mark shrugged, "Alright, it never hurts to check, but I guess if you've already searched," he trailed off, "So what's your story?"

Danny sighed in contemplation, "Well, Me and my two friends were actually trying to stop Technus before he even got in to this game. His latest scheme was to beat this game so that he could get into the internet and take over the world. We succeeded in stopping him, but he figured out that he had more power in this game, so he took over the programing and stopped us from escaping.

He then realized that he had the ability to affect other people as well and that's how we ended up where we are. He then got the dumb idea that if everyone was playing this game, then the world would be his for the taking."

Danny then seemed to curl into himself, "We fought him for several months, destroying supply drops and shortening his supply of technology that he collected from all over the game. Apparently, he thinks that if he gets enough, then he can somehow take over the world faster."

Mark made to ask a question, but thought better when Danny continued to speak.

"We've been fighting for so long. Sam and Tucker have so much faith in me to be able to finish this battle and save the world. I just don't know. He's beaten us so much," Danny sighed in defeat, "I just don't want to fail and doom the entire world."

Mark couldn't help feel a twang of sympathy for the boy in front of him. To have so much responsibility thrown onto him at such a young age. Mark smiled sadly and sat beside him. He placed a consoling hand on Danny's shoulder, "You've fought well, but you were never alone. Sam and Tucker were always there for you and now you have me and my friend Jack."

Danny jolted at the comment, obviously not expecting comfort. He looked up to Mark with appreciation. Then his eyes hardened with resolve. He then took on a pensive look, "You're right! I was never alone. My friends have always had my back, even before this," he sent Mark and appreciate look, "Thanks, man. I needed that."

Mark put his hands on his hips and laughed boisterously, "That's me! Encouraging as it gets!"

Danny gave him a blank look, "Wait a minute, who are you again?"

Mark's expression fell and he sighed, "I'm Mark," he said, sulking.

"Danny," Danny introduced himself needlessly.

"It was actually your friends' idea to get me in here so that they could track me and find you. Now we just have to wait until they get here. Together we can take this lunatic out."

The conversation ground to a halt when they heard some mechanical bangs from outside their door.

Danny 's head shot towards it with a curious glance, but he didn't do much else.

Mark smirked confidently as the sound of powering down came from the other side of the door. There was a stampede of feet that clambered past their door. A second later the backup lights came on and bathed the cell in a red light.

Mark stared flatly beside the door at the light switch that was turned off. He turned to Danny, who looked a bit embarrassed since he seemed to notice the switch as well.

"No light switch, huh?" Mark snarked.

Danny scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.

Mark stood confidently and walked to the door and waited. After a hesitant second, Danny followed.

There was a sound of a scuffle outside and finally all went silent. After a second, there was a click. And the door started to creak open. Mark's confidence fell when he once again found himself face to face with the barrel of a gun. He shrieked and fell back in surprise.

 **End**


	9. Chapter 9

Mark chuckled nervously, but managed to squeak out, "Any way that I can get out of this without being shot?"

There was no response, and Marks view of their assailant was blocked by the gun in front of him, so he waited in silence.

He was hit with a mixture of horror and relief when the gun lowered and revealed it to be Sam. Although the mischievous twinkle in her eye caused him to lean more towards mortification.

He jumped to his feet and brushed imaginary dust off of his pants with his bound hands, "For the record, that was a manly shriek."

Sam rolled her eyes playfully, but still seemed to give the same confident and cool demeanor that Mark had grown more accustom to over the past few days, "Right. Here," She cut off his ropes with her strange glowing dagger before she tossed him his Vid Box and gave him a high-five, "Nice distraction. I can't thank you enough for your help."

Mark nodded and adjusted imaginary suspenders in pride, "Just another day of saving people and helping where I can. No biggie."

He was met with silence, so he turned and froze awkwardly as he found Danny in Sam's arms as she cried on his shoulder.

"I was so scared. I thought that they had gotten you. I'm so happy that you're safe." She whispered into his neck

Danny rubbed her back consolingly, "It's okay, Sam. Now we can all get out together."

Sam's head shot up and she scowled at him. She punched him in the shoulder, "I know that. I just had to get help before we could save your butt."

Sam's indignant response dispelled any lingering awkwardness between the two, and everyone was set to escape.

That is until Tucker sighed, "Lovebirds."

"We are not Lovebirds!" Sam and Danny shrieked in unison.

Mark and Jack snickered.

This brought Danny's attention to the two forgotten Youtubers. He gave them a friendly smile, "So Your names were Mark and Jack, right? Thanks for the help."

Jack nervously scratched his chin and he said, "I'm glad that we could help, but shouldn't we actually escape before we celebrate?"

This seemed to bring the three friends down from their relief fueled high and the atmosphere grew heavy. Danny nodded to the other two and he addressed the smaller boy, "You're right. I apologize that we interrupted with our reunion. Let's continue this discussion outside, shall we?"

Mark noted how Danny was so quick to fall into the leader position of the three, Sam and Tucker positioned on both sides close enough to help if it was needed, but far enough away that they did not get in his way if he were to need to fight. They must have been really familiar with each other and had been fighting together for a long time.

As the group made their way through the halls, Danny began to brief the other two, "The guards of this tower are well armored, so they are protected from most attacks. The weak spots are the ankles and heads. Everywhere else is protected by a very tough material that prevents most damage."

Jack winced, "So how do we take them out then?"

Danny sighed, "The armor is tough, but their maneuverability is next to zero. As long as you keep moving, there's a high chance that you can take them out before they can react. You just have to be quick and precise. Also, throwing them seems to do the job as well. They can still be knocked out. Apparently, the suit doesn't come with impact padding. I never could figure out why."

The two nodded, but Mark responded, "So I get that these guys are supposed to be tough, but doesn't that mean that we should get your cuffs off so that you can fight too?"

He gestured to the glowing green cuffs that Danny was indeed still wearing.

Danny winced, "I would if I could, but these are indestructible, so the only way to get them open is to either find a key or pick the lock. We don't really have the time to attempt at either, so we're going to get out of here first, then I'm going to try to get these off. They also cancel my powers, so I'm going to be next to useless in battle."

Mark nodded in sympathy, "Alright then. What's the plan after that?"

Danny sighed in resignation, "Our only option is to wage an all-out war on Technus. Unfortunately, my capture caused us to lose our foothold in this war, so we need to just go all out and hope for the best."

Mark deadpanned, "That sounds like a terrible idea, "he shrugged, "But I don't have any other plan, so alright then."

Tucker smiled and held up his PDA, "When we broke in, I was able to raid the computers, so I got the coordinates of where we can find Technus. We know where he is and how to get to him."

Mark shuddered, "But wouldn't that mean that he knows that we're coming? You hacked into his systems and he claims himself to be the master of technology."

Tucker smirked, "I destroyed the data and released a virus into his system. Once he destroys it, he won't be able to tell what data was tampered with because I destroyed a lot of things in my leave."

Mark was not reassured, "So it's just down to hoping he doesn't notice."

Tucker shrugged, unaffected by Mark's dubious tone, "You have to take Hubris into account when dealing with him. After he destroys my virus, he'll probably stop searching so that he can write his victory speech for when he sees us again."

This coerced a little laughter from the group as they walked around the corner.

The group suddenly fell silent as they entered the next room and were met with a large group of guards.

Apparently, Sam had misread Tucker's floorplan and led them into what looked to be a mess hall. Guards were all over the floor and balcony and they were each staring at the small group of ragtag warriors. The only reason that they did not attack was probably their frozen incomprehension.

The five of them slowly moved together and Sam whispered, "No sudden movements. On my mark, jump to an offensive formation. Tucker, cover from a distance. Danny is unable to fight due to his restraints, so unfortunately he's about as useful as a single left shoe right now."

She ignored Danny's huff of indignation.

"Since I specialize in both range and melee, I will stand guard for him. Mark and Jack, I need you to take out as many people as you can. Like Danny said, they're reaction time is squat, so attack fast and effectively. Remember, speed is key."

Jack smirked and Mark rolled his eyes, but they both nodded.

Sam nodded to the other three and jumped before the weakened Danny.

Mark hovered his hand over the Vid Box and after a second, he pulled out the master sword again.

Jack's energy blades popped out of his sleeves.

The guards seemed to have finally snapped out of their stupor and they each stood up from their tables menacingly. In the background, a guard pushed a button on the wall and caused the tables to disappear into the ground. This left the room wide enough for a battle.

Tucker pulled out his yellow blaster as he ran to get some distance from the fight.

-'As the nerd ran away, the guards all took this as a cowardly retreat and they began to jeer. The boos increased when he disappeared up the stairs. Thankfully, Tucker seemed to have thick enough skin to ignore the taunts as he got in position on a balcony that overlooked the whole battlefield.

Mark and Jack smirked at each other. They took off in synch, each running in curved lines so that they created a double helix with guards exploding into data in their wake with Tucker doing his part by taking out any that the two missed.

Jack and Mark stopped on opposite sides of the crowd, followed by cries of pain. The two then ran towards each other and jumped so that they met with their feet and they kicked off of each other.

Due to his small size, Jack flew farther, but once he touched down, he blasted back towards Mark and cut down anyone who got in his way.

Mark, on the other hand, was not thrown as far. Even so, he used what momentum he gained to backflip away and springboard off of the closest guard's face, which led to an axe kick onto another.

The two unfortunate guards crumpled, as Mark's attacks did not actually do enough to kill them. He settled for incapacitation.

Jack scoffed and looked over to Mark with a challenging smirk, "Is that all you got?" He then proceeded to encircle small groups of guards in a similar way to the Cyclops. The enemies were covered in cuts for a few seconds before the circle exploded, the unfortunate enemies along with it. Jack did this a couple more times before he stopped and gave Mark an expecting stare.

Mark scoffed at the challenge in good humor and he activated the spin ability for his sword just as the guards jumped to dogpile him and they were decimated. A few were left unconscious on the floor. He smirked playfully at his green haired friend.

Jack returned the smirk with a scowl. He then proceeded to run forward and slide so that he took out the ankles he passed. Once he slid to a halt, he saw a guard moving into his range of attack.

However, before he could attack, Mark suddenly appeared from above and crashed down on the enemy.

Jack snarled in mock irritation, "You hairy bitch! That was totally my kill! You're a cheating bastard!"

Mark giggled as he took out another baddie with his sword, "I don't recall there being spoken rules."

Mark moved to dispatch another, but Jack slid in and took 'em out.

Before Mark could complain, Jack smirked and said in a sing song voice, "I don't recall there being spoken rules."

Mark was indignant, "Not cool, man! At least the guy I got was in my range! You had to make an effort to go after mine!"

Jack waved it off, "Yeah yeah. Let's just get back to the job at hand."

Mark stomped his foot childishly, "No! This is important to me!"

Jack deadpanned, "Priorities, Mark. We kind of have a situation. "He gestured to the guards that surrounded him just in time for the approaching guards to pounce and be vaporized into yellow light.

Mark purposefully did not look up to Tucker. Although, he did address the guards that were behind the first group, "You know, it's rude to interrupt when people are talking."

The guards blinked in confusion, unsure exactly how to respond. Or at least, they were unsure. After a few seconds, they finally snapped out of their stupor and they snarled in annoyance. They began to charge.

"Enough!" A voice boomed out and caused the guards to pause and they began to cower in fear. The guards turned their heads to the back of the room and a more notable guard walked in.

This guy wore a red cape, though it didn't hide the mean looking police baton on his hip. He wore an official looking military uniform, the jacket labeled "Bullet." Where the other guards all wore face covering helmets, this man's head was bear aside from the black bandana. His hair was spiked out underneath it and he had a black eyepatch. The most notable feature was the two black triangles formed from his beard on the bottom of his chin.

The new guard, Bullet, scowled in irritation. He glared at the intruders out of the corner of his eyes, but turned to address his guards, "Seriously? These children are making a fool out of every one of you! I think that I may need to convince Walker to uppen your training." He said spitefully.

The guards all simultaneously paled before they brought up their weapons in preparation to attack in attempt to escape their grueling fate.

However, they were stopped when Bullet rose an arm before them, "Not so fast. You already had your chance... and failed miserably. Leave the interlopers to me." Finally, he turned to see who was foolish enough to attempt to break out and his gaze swept over the group until it landed and zeroed in on Danny.

"PHANTOM!" Bullet lost all composure as he shrieked in rage and ran at Danny. He did not reach his target because after he got past the bewildered pair of youtubers, Sam stepped up and sent Bullet flying with a roundhouse kick. Once Bullet made contact with the wall with a large crash, Sam sent two consecutive blasts with her gun for good measure.

Bullet was unbothered as he pulled himself to his feet and he patted himself down for invisible dust as he spoke in a patronizingly calm voice, " I apologize. I just couldn't control my reaction at the audacity that you would have to try to escape after all of the trouble you caused us. In my haste, I forgot about strength in numbers." He nodded to his reluctant guards.

Even so, no one stepped forward.

Bullet scowled, "I know I said not to, but I feel that keeping Phantom here is top priority."

After a long fearful silence, four guards began to charge forward with halfhearted battle cries. Jack zoomed forward and cut down the one in the front, Mark tackled and pinned the last, and Tucker sniped the third, but the fourth made it past all three of the fighters and headed straight towards the goth and phantom.

Unfortunately, the guard made the mistake of dismissing said goth and going straight for Danny. Sam used this distraction to blindside the guard with a spinkick to the head. While he was still dazed, Sam swept his feet. Once the unfortunate enemy was down, she finished with an axe kick.

Jack winced at her brutality, "Holy shit! What, did he piss in your oatmeal or something?"

Jack's outburst drew the attention of both the guards and Bullet. "Guards! Get them!"

The guards took one look at the steaming Bullet then back to the group of kids, and finally to the growing pile of digital dust and small group of unconscious guards strewn all over the floor. Without further ado, they shrieked and ran. Mark whistled at the retreating mass. Apparently the guards he overheard weren't the only ones who planned to leave when Danny broke out.

Mark waited for the last of the guards to exit, and once they were no longer in sight, the adrenaline finally seemed to leave his system all at once and he was hit by the fatigue of battle. He fell to his knee, panting. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Jack was in a similar state. It seemed that running around and attacking hard enough to take enemies out in a single hit took its toll on his stamina.

Mark attempted to push himself up to his feet, but he stopped when Sam jumped before the two. Before he could question her, she spoke, "Time to tap out boys. I'll handle him."

Mark would have loved to protest, but he just couldn't muster the energy to yell at her. He and Jack nodded to each other and they jumped before Danny, who looked extremely unhappy at the situation.

Bullet didn't seem to like the exchange and moved to intercept the two youtubers, but he was stopped by a boot to the face. He slid back from the force and once he recovered, he brandished his baton with a growl.

Bullet sneered and took a stance, "Why don't you give up now? I was watching and the fighting must have taken its toll. You don't stand a chance."

Sam scoffed to hide her own fatigue. Truthfully, breaking in had actually taken its toll. She had to maneuver back and forth to avoid being detected. Her arms were tired from having to scale the wall and monkey over the hallway. Even with her own tiredness, she refused to show weakness.

"I didn't fight with Mark and Jack, so I'm up and raring to go!" she sneered. She rolled her eyes, "Besides, those two idiots were getting way to into their fight with their childish argument."

Mark drew himself up indignantly, "For your information, we were having a gentlemen's competition, thank you very much."

Jack nodded pseudo-pompously, "Don't listen to her, Mr. Iplier. She just doesn't understand our level of class and sophistication."

Bullet roared in rage at the easy banter between the three. Of course, he was interrupted when Sam blasted him in the face with her gun.

This only seemed to enrage him more and he charged towards her with a roar. She responded by proceeding to flip over his charging form and kicked him in the back of the head and sent him crashing into the nearby wall. She jumped up and started falling towards him with an axe kick.

He growled and swatted her out of the air as he clutched his bleeding forehead.

Sam grunted as she was sent flying. She landed on her feet, but slid in a crouch, clutching her aching ribs. His attack felt as if she had been hit by a truck. She tried to stand again, but apparently, she was more tired than she had realized.

Across the room, Bullet let out a guttural laugh, "Not tired, huh. I see," he gave a wicked grin as he sneered at her, "Your bravery was entertaining, but I'm going to enjoy locking you up."

Sam scoffed, "I may be tired, but I don't need my full strength to kick your butt!"

Bullet looked unimpressed, "Your bravado is charming, but tell me, what did you plan to do with your break in? You're up against an army, girl. While it may be true that you defeated them, it left you in a weakened state. It will be child's play to finish you off."

"That's what you think!"

Sam was unable to react to Mark's yell of indignation because she saw something red flying at her and she caught it on reflex. When she examined it, she was somewhat confused to see a red viscous liquid in a glass jar. She gave it a strange look before she looked back at her redheaded friend with a questioning look.

He mimed drinking something and she gave him a funny look. After a moment, she shrugged and popped the cork before she downed it in one go. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and burped out a red mist.

She chuckled and cleared her throat nervously, "Excuse me," she said to no one in particular.

Over by Danny, Mark watched as the potion took effect and she stood taller as her energy was restored. When the potion he drank finished restoring his own vitality, he made a move to join into the battle, but was stopped by a hand from Sam.

"No," she said, "he's mine."

She cracked her knuckled and began to walk towards Bullet with a vicious smile, "Hello misplaced aggression."

She charged, completely missing the conversation between the boys.

"You know," Mark mused, "If you think about it, she was stressed for several days because he kidnapped Danny. That would mean that her aggression towards him wouldn't really be misplaced."

Danny chuckled nervously, "I don't really think that this is the right place and time."

Meanwhile, during the snarky back and forth, Sam was right into the action, the potion's restoration rejuvenating her energy completely. Bullet had tried to take advantage of Sam's interaction with her teammates and he fired at her with a pink blaster. Luckily, she was still paying attention, so she cartwheeled out of the way.

Bullet angrily charged at her with a battle cry, but she hastily ducked and fired a shot at the side of his head. He brought up his arms quickly to block the blast, and while he managed to negate most of the damage, his vision was blocked. Sam readily took advantage and performed an uppercut when he lowered his arms.

Bullet flew back and while he was still staggering, Sam began several forward handsprings to build momentum. With her final flip, she pushed off the ground to mule kick Bullet in the chin. His jaw clicked shut and he fell to the ground. After a moment, he remained down and Sam dropped her stance.

Mark whistled, "Damn. I'm glad that she never actually fought me. I have a distinct feeling that I would have been creamed."

Beside him, Jack stood with indignation, "No way! That was a terrible boss fight! She easily took him out! That's boring!"

He stormed over to the downed enemy in a huff and stared at him just in case Bullet was faking. He even kicked the man for good measure. Bullet did not stir and Jack's frown grew. He wound up his foot to take out his frustration on the subpar boss.

However, Jack stumbled and fell on his butt when something big and heavy crashed down beside him. Jack and Sam lifted their arms to block the flying dust and debris.

When visibility returned, a towering figure was revealed. The man was muscular with a black fedora. He wore a black belt over a white trench coat. Underneath that, white pinstripe pants were tucked into black boots. However, the most notable feature was the white skull that stood in place of his head.

Sam was undeterred by his appearance. If anything, she seemed more incensed, "Walker!" she yelled angrily, "It's about time that you showed your despicable face!" she ran towards him with a kick launched at his face, only to be swatted out of the air. She bounced and slid back on her belly. She pushed herself to her feet with a cough.

Walker growled, "You punks! What did you plan to accomplish through your actions? You are out skilled, out gunned and outnumbered!"

Sam jumped to her feet in defiance and leaned forward with a hand cupped around her ear, "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of your defeated men."

Walker scowled at her sass.

Sam took his scowl as a victory and she charged towards the man. She jumped towards him with a kick, but he took an iron stance and palmed her out of the air. As she flew back, Jack jumped up and grabbed her to stop her momentum and the two landed on the ground and jumped into mirroring fighting stances. The two shared a knowing smile and Sam picked Jack up. She began to spin on her heel and launched Jack towards Walker. As Jack flew through the air, he began to spin into a corkscrew, the neon lights from his blades streaking and causing him to look like a blue drill.

Walker's iron stance gave him the center of gravity to block Jack easily. Jack fell back and bounced on his butt. He quickly jumped to his feet and began to massage his sore backside. He scowled at Walker's derisive laughter.

Walker smirked down at their perceived futility, "You have no chance. Nothing you can do will break my iron stance. It's impenetrable. All I have to do is keep blocking your attacks. Once you are tired, I can take you all down. I have five nice and comfy cells all ready just for you punks."

Sam growled and ran towards him and he smirked as he prepared himself to palm her again. However, he was not prepared for the blast of yellow light that hit him in the face. He staggered and felt his jaw click shut as Sam's double kick connected with his chin.

Mark whistled from his position in front of Danny, "Nice one guys. It looks to me like his _impenetrable_ defense is starting to be a little more penetrable."

Walker scoffed, "It was a lucky shot. Now that I know you have a ranger, I can block anything you have to throw at me."

He proved his point by easily blocking Tucker's attack and turning around to simultaneously block Sam and Jack before he tossed them away. Mark couldn't help but notice that Walker seemed to be concentrating intently on the three. He shrugged and hovered his hand over his Vid box.

He pulled out a bow and arrow and took aim at the distracted warden. Just after Tucker fired and before Sam and Jack charged, Mark fired a single arrow to catch Walker off guard. Walker staggered again and Sam and Jack hit him with two strikes and they jumped back for some distance.

Walker grunted in irritation and shot a glare to Mark, "Regardless," he sneered, "You are only postponing the inevitable."

Mark ignored his comment and readied another arrow, causing Walker to narrow his eyes. Tucker attacked, Mark attacked, Sam attacked, Jack attacked. Walker blocked them all. They tried again to attack in the same order again, and Walker blocked them all. Mark could see that the constant attacking was taking its toll on his two melee fighting friends.

He waited for the next attack, but this time, he did not launch his arrow, and chose instead to charge his shot. Walker prepared himself to block something that was not there, and Sam and Jack hit him while he was distracted.

Walker growled, glaring at the two standing in front of him.

Mark released a volley of arrows towards Walker and the warden put all of his blocking power into negating any damage. Unfortunately for him, Sam took this opportunity and threw Jack again, and Walker was unable to block both large attacks at the same time, and he was hit with the blue drill. His roar of rage echoed through the room as he exploded into data.

Mark cheered as the five of them gathered together. Their escape chances were looking a bit better.

His jubilant cry was cut off as a red light stared flashing accompanied by a loud, blaring noise.

 **End**


	10. Chapter 10

Surprisingly, it was rather easy to escape the prison despite the alarm. Apparently, the guards really weren't joking around when they fled. Even so, Sam still felt the need to keep everyone crouching and sneaking. They were able to get out of the building, and the alarm still blared behind them, and slowly began to fade as they made distance.

Once they were able to barely hear the noise, Sam seemed satisfied enough to nod to the group and Mark and the others relaxed. Mark fell on his butt and stretched out his legs in attempt to relieve the aches from crouching for such a long distance.

In the meantime, Danny turned to Tucker, "So where are we headed, Tuck? You have the technical knowhow to lead us somewhere safe. I'm all for wrist accessories," he jangled his cuffed wrists in front of him to emphasize his statement, "but these seem a little too tacky for me."

Tucker rolled his eyes, but gave a fond smile that was tinged with lingering relief, "Alright, so once we get over this hill here, I have programmed it so that we will teleport far enough so that we won't have to worry about being followed."

Danny nodded, "Right." He then led as the group headed up and over the nearby hill. Mark could feel the displacement of air, he ran back up and peaked over the hill, but the building was no longer there. He whistled in appreciation.

Jack shook his head in surprise, "Holy shit! How's that even work?"

Tucker drew himself up and spoke full of pride, "That is actually how Technus transitions between levels. I don't know if you noticed, but the game was designed in the beginning to use these transitions to get to new bosses.

Mark silently agreed. That would explain why a school was separated from a lava pit by a hill. The small bouts of irrationality could finally be explained away… somewhat.

Mark looked around the clearing. It looked extremely familiar, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why.

Mark scratched his head, "And where exactly are we right now?"

Tucker shrugged, "Technus really hated humans, like, a lot. Therefore, he wanted them as far away as possible. This way, I decided to transport us to the theoretical other side of the map. This is the area of the player hubs."

Mark blinked slowly, "Alright. I guess that makes sense. Even so, which hub are we in?"

Tucker nodded in acknowledgement, "The transportation latched onto the game players in our party and brought us to one of your hubs. Remember, Me and Sam were not originally from this game, so it would either be yours or Jack's hub."

Jack shook his head, "I doubt that it is mine. My teammates kicked me out." He paused and stroked his chin in thought, "I guess that this would make it Mark's hub."

Mark looked around as he finally realized why this place felt so familiar. He looked at the impression of grass and remembered when he first fell in and Technus explained the mechanics. He looked at the familiar fork in the road and silently wondered if he could still find the lava pit and the high school. Finally, his eyes landed on the pile of rocks that he made as a grave where he buried the last memento of his battle alongside his allies.

Jack made a show of looking around the field with exaggerated contemplation. After he seemed satisfied, he put his hands on his hips, "Cozy."

Mark rolled his eyes at Jack's sass, silently thankful for the distraction, "Thanks, man, it took me forever to design it."

The two shared a grin and high fived. Their moment was ruined by the pained yelp behind them. They quickly turned around to see Danny cutting his eyes left and right nervously as his cuffs sparked.

Jack blinked, "Dude, did that thing just shock you?"

Danny looked resigned and he rolled his eyes before giving a deadpanned look. He was interrupted when he winced at another shock. He grit his teeth before he spoke quickly, "I don't mean to alarm you, but the shocks have been getting progressively worse ever since we left the prison cell.

Sam gave him a dark look, "Are you telling me that those cuffs have been shocking you this whole time?"

Danny shrugged nonchalantly, "Technus has always been a sadistic bastard, and the sudden boost of power did nothing to calm that," at Sam's growing displeasure, he quickly added, "To be fair, it only started actually being painful when we left the building."

Sam did not look appeased in the least, so she began to speak calmly, "I understand that it did not hurt you at the beginning. The problem that I have is that you were BEING SHOCKED!" I feel that that takes some priority."

Danny looked at her flatly, "I am perfectly happy to sit down and listen to you yelling at me, but the shocks are staring to be alarmingly painful. Would you mind helping me to get these cuffs off."

Sam's eyes widened and she spontaneously shot at the cuff links. The blast bounced off the metal and Mark threw himself down to the ground as it whizzed over his head. Jack was not too far behind him.

"What the hell!" Mark shrieked.

Danny wasn't in much better shape. He gave Sam a flat look, "How about some warning next time before you shoot at me?" He winced at another shock.

Sam shrugged nonchalantly, "I felt that the situation warranted it."

Danny scowled, but before he could voice his displeasure, he grunted as another shock coursed through his body. The grunt turned into a yelp, then a full blown cry of agony.

Sam's victorious smirk slid off of her face, and she frantically began to look around for anything that could help free Danny. Sadly, her panicked searching came up with nothing.

Tucker looked up from his PDA with obvious dread, "I'm locked out of the programming for the cuffs and I can't get them to release! I see a keyhole, but I don't have anything to start with to hack it."

Suddenly, Danny's cries began to echo through the clearing and he began to writhe on the ground in an instinctual attempt to escape the growing pain. Sam's eyes widened and she began to desperately and hysterically fire continuous blasts that all bounced off of the cuff links. Danny's screams reached a new frequency as the shocks increased.

Tears of frustration and fear began to run unchecked down Sam's cheeks as the futility of the situation hit her and she tossed her ineffective gun to the side. In her blind hysteria, she pulled up a sizeable rock and began to beat at the metal links. After several futile impacts, Sam dropped the rock and began to weep openly into her hands at the hopelessness of the situation with Danny's cries in the background.

Suddenly, she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder and she looked up as Mark calmly brushed past her. She couldn't help but stare as he pulled out a key and unlocked the cuffs and she felt overwhelming relief as they fell to the floor with a clink.

Danny followed as he flopped to the ground in an exhausted heap.

Sam looked between Mark and Danny several times before she finally settled on Mark with a serious look, "Where in the world did you get a key to the cuffs? I mean, not that I'm ungrateful, but, it's just that-."

She trailed off as she noticed the dirt underneath his fingernails and the trail of dirt that led to a small hole surrounded by a knocked over pile of rocks.

Mark's shoulders fell in resignation and he glanced towards the defaced grave behind him. He then regarded Sam with a resolute look before he spoke, "When I first got here, Technus told me that these keys were universal, which was why he always took them from me when he could. When I first got here, he took my keys. When I was captured and taken to Walker's prison, they took my keys again.

While I was unsure that it would actually unlock the cuffs, I figured that it was better than nothing. I'm glad that my hunch came through."

Sam shook her head in confusion, "but if they mugged you from before, how did you get one now?"

Mark gestured weakly to the hole that he had hastily dug up, "My team member was very paranoid. She decided to bury these just in case I got mugged." he paused, "Well, I guess she ended up being right. It looks like it was good thinking on her part."

Danny weakly pushed himself to his hands and knees and spoke with a relieved lilt to his voice, "She may have just saved my life. I'll need to thank her."

Mark flinched as if he had been struck and his shoulders fell. Before Danny could question the sudden mood change, Mark sighed and spoke, "That would be difficult, seeing as she's dead."

Danny winced, obviously hearing the pain in Mark's voice, "Sorry man. I didn't know," he offered hesitantly.

Mark gave a weak smile, "That's just it. You _didn't_ know, so you have nothing to apologize for."

Danny shrugged helplessly.

Mark did not stand for this awkward silence, so he decided to bowl over it by changing the subject, "So what's the plan of attack anyways?"

Danny smiled wryly for the obvious topic switch. After a secound, he shook his head and gave Mark a serious look, "I'm not sure exactly how the others think, but I'm starting to feel that this has gone on long enough. Technus has been stringing us along for far too long and it's about time that we put a stop to it. After all these months of fighting his lackeys, it's time to take the battle to him!"

He then turned to address both Jack and Mark, "I know that this may be a lot to ask, but we could probably use the backup. Would you two be willing to fight alongside us?"

Mark smirked in excitement and crossed his arms, "As if you even needed to ask."

Jack looked equally ecstatic, "Hell yeah! I'm ready to kick some ass!"

Danny smirked at Jack's enthusiasm, "Good to have you two on board."

 **XxoxX**

Later that night, as the others slept, Mark found himself sitting atop the hill that no longer led to the high school. What was now in its place was a large green field. It really was quite beautiful, in a "realize the futility of your situation" kind of way.

He looked up at the unfamiliar constellations in the sky and let out a heavy sigh. It was almost over. If all went as planned, they would be heading out tomorrow for the final battle against Technus. It was in the final stretch, and he had come too far to chicken out now.

Mark looked up to the sky as if to find answers to his thoughts, but his inner monologue was cut off when he heard some mechanical clunking below him. He sat up straight and pulled out a sword. With the grace of a wet cat, he snuck towards the noise in silence.

He peeked over the edge slowly, but dropped his guard when he saw that it was just Tucker dragging what looked to be a large metal briefcase. He hopped down and landed with a loud thump beside his geeky teammate.

Tucker shrieked and dropped the metal box, only to yelp and begin to hop up and down while clutching his foot. Mark winced, that box sounded heavy. He would hate to have something like that dropped on his foot.

Mark pulled out a med kit from his Vid Box and grabbed an icepack. He handed it to Tucker with a nervous chuckle, "Sorry about that. I guess I should have thought that through more."

Tucker took the icepack with a grateful smile, "It's all good dude, I probably would have done the same thing if it were me. It was too golden of an opportunity.

Mark smirked at the idea, but his eye was caught by the case, "So what is that thing, anyway? It seems too heavy to have been lugged around this whole time."

Tucker looked very smug, "I hacked into the system data and created it. It's actually my mobile computer lab. When I open it, it provides me with a full computer system with all of the works. This baby has all that I need. It's usually with this that I help monitor and assist in battles."

Mark looked down dubiously, "That little thing has everything that you need? Isn't it a little small?"

Tucker smirked, "Ah, but alas, the box is only a conduit. In truth, it activates a hidden program that I have that brings out my real computer system."

Mark whistled, "So I keep hearing that you hack the programing for this game a lot. Are you some kind of technological genius or something? It seems like most of the stuff you do is rather fantastic."

Tucker puffed up, "You would be correct sir. I've always been a bit of a techno wiz. It was the only way that I could think of to help Danny fight off his enemies. Here, check this out."

Mark's eyes widened when Tucker opened the briefcase and the thing began to unfold an unnatural amount of times. The metal unfolded and created a semicircle of computers in front of the two. When it finished, Mark whistled.

Tucker nodded proudly, "Here is everything that we would need to infiltrate the enemy base."

Mark cracked his fingers, "Alright, so how are we going to do this?"

Tucker pushed a few buttons before he answered, "It's going to take a bit of maneuvering. Technus has set up his evil lair in an area inaccessible to us. Where we are headed is actually a bit of a hub. We're going to use the teleporter there to transport to his real place of operation.

Unfortunately, this means that we're going to have to split up into teams of two. I'm going to stay behind to monitor activities and communications and call for retreat if necessary.

You and Jack are going to team up to break into the control room in the back and clear out the security guards to open the way. Once it's all clear, you need to insert this into the hard drive," he pulled out what looked to be a clear skinned jump drive, "Once it's in, I'll be able to hack into the teleportation relay and send Danny and Sam up to finish Technus for good."

Mark nodded, "Right. So where is this base that Danny and Sam are going to anyways? Is there any way that Jack and I can help after they get there?"

Tucker shrugged helplessly, "Unfortunately, you won't be able to do much. I will only be able to activate the teleporter once before Technus can lock me out. I may have gotten better at hacking against him, but unfortunately, my many attempts have given him time to pick up on the algorithm that I use. Once he figures out what I'm doing, he'll be able to stop me from sending backup. All you can really do is keep anyone else from going up to help Technus. He usually stays up in his space station by himself to overlook the system all around the world."

Mark held up a hand, "Hold on there, bucko. Did you just say… space station? As in up in space with no gravity and stars?"

Tucker nodded slowly, "Yes…"

Mark gained a very big, very creepy grin, "So, Tucker, how about we rework those teams."

 **The end**

 **A.N.  
So… believe it or not, but I plan for there to be two more chapters. The next, then the epilogue. After all of these months, I'm finally gonna finish. I have the blueprint for each mapped out, it's just finding the time to actually do it. Due to a death in the family, I've been a bit distracted lately. Even so, I will try my best to get these last two out as soon as possible. I hope you enjoyed my story.**


	11. Chapter 11

The morning was met by a gleeful and ecstatic Markiplier. He pranced around the campsite happily as he awaited the up and coming battle to the death. While many would see his mood as a bit inappropriate for the situation, Mark had a very good reason for his cheerful disposition. His happiness even led to him doing a bid of a jig now and then. It was one of these spontaneous gyrations that caused Jack to stir awake from his own slumber.

Jack sat up and his hood flopped off of his head to reveal that his messy green mop of hair was extra messy this morning. He shrunk into himself due to his fatigue and his oversized sweatshirt seemed to swallow him up. He rose one of his sleeve covered fists and groggily tried to rub the sleep out of his eye.

Mark's good mood seemed to intensify his love of cute things and this caused him to coo and fuss over the half-awake man-child. His prodding caused him to hover uncomfortably close.

His overbearing presence quickly brought the greenette to full consciousness and Jack jumped back in a mixture of panic and embarrassment.

"What the hell!" Jack yelled, getting as much distance as possible with his shocked movement.

Mark seemed completely unaffected by Jack's outburst, and was unrelenting in his coddling, "Well, aren't you just adorable?"

Jack started to back away in alarm, "You do know that I'm 26, right?" he shrieked desperately.

Mark cheerfully ignored his friend's protests and continued to swoon in happiness. The two Youtubers were so wrapped up in their shenanigans that they didn't even notice when the others woke up.

Off to the side, Sam was flipping over the logs in the campfire in attempt to feed the fire. As she worked, she couldn't stop the bemused smirk at Jack's situation. She cut her eyes to Tucker, "What's up with Mark anyway? Why's he so happy?"

Tucker shrugged helplessly, but couldn't hide his own smile, "He and I discussed the battle plan last night. Apparently, Danny's not the only one here who's obsessed with going to space."

Sam's teasing smirk fell as she realized the implications of Tucker's statement and she scowled at her brainy friend, "Oh hell no! No offense to Mark, but I am not sending Danny up alone to fight a powerful enemy with only a stranger as backup! Those two have absolutely no experience fighting together, so there is no guarantee that they will survive."

Tucker rolled his eyes, "I tried to tell Mark that, but he just countered by saying that the two of them could easily learn to fight together if they sparred. Apparently, it was how he learned to fight with his original teammates. Besides, he just looked so excited that I couldn't say no."

He gave her a nervous grin, but much to his chagrin, she was unmoved. He actually started to sweat as she gave him a flat look and her eyebrow began to twitch in annoyance.

His nerves were not settled in the least when she began to respond in a calm and composed voice, "Still, I think that I would make a better backup for Danny. I have been fighting with him for the past few months, and we are familiar with each other's combat styles."

Tucker's jovial smile fell and his shoulders sagged in defeat, "Even so, Technus is also familiar with your combat style and he's seen how you two fight together. At least with Mark, we have a new wild card to try out. As far as I know, Mark has never fought Technus before, so we might be able to throw him off with a new fighting style.

Sam drew herself up in indignation in an attempt to come up with a response, but after a second, she seemed to collapse in on herself in resignation, "Fine. You make a good point, but he better not end up being captured again."

Tucker rolled his eyes, "I'm sure he'll try his best."

In the background, it sounded as if Mark and Jack had finally finished their skirmish and the two joined Tucker and Sam around the campfire.

"So what were you guys arguing about anyways?" Jack asked, showing that he was observant enough to notice their dispute during his confrontation with Mark.

Sam shrugged, "Apparently, Mark and Danny are going up to face Technus while You and I are going to keep out any backup."

Jack raised an eyebrow, "And that sparked an argument between you two?"

Tucker smirked knowingly at Sam before he turned to address Jack, "Sam's majorly overprotective and she wanted to go up with Danny to protect him. Mark and I reworked the plan so that Danny and Mark would go up instead and she was concerned that Mark wouldn't be able to protect Danny."

Jack nodded in understanding, but turned to address Sam, "I guess that makes sense. So what changed your mind?"

Sam scowled at Tucker's explanation, but still responded, "We decided to try introducing a new fighting style against Technus in attempt to throw him off," she shrugged and smiled humorlessly, "Plus I hear that Mark really wanted to go to space."

Jack's jaw dropped, "Space?! As in with stars and no gravity?"

Tucker snorted in surprised at Jack's similar comparison to Mark's, but Sam ignored that and responded to Jack, "Yeah… Why?"

Instead of answering her question, "Jack responded with his own question, "Any way that you can try to throw Technus off with two unknown fighting styles?"

Sam gave him a flat look ten times more flat than the one that she gave Tucker. Jack, completely unaware of her intolerance of unforeseen shenanigans, began to sweat under her intense stare.

"No." she said resolutely. "I may have been swayed out of backing Danny up, but Danny has had the most experience fighting Technus, and therefore is most suitable. I'm going to have to put my foot down."

Jack began to cut his eyes left and right nervously, but he still managed to ask a sly question, "So what you mean to say is that only one other person besides Danny can go up into space?"

Sam nodded slowly, reluctantly piecing together the reasoning behind Jack's inquiry. Before she could ask, Jack had launched himself at an unsuspecting Markiplier.

"Rawr!" Jack yelled as he soared towards Mark.

Mark "eeped" and ducked down, and Jack continued to soar right over him.

Mark jumped back in surprise, "What the hell, man?!"

Jack ignored his question and charged forward.

Mark did the only thing that he could think of at the time and he held out his hand against Jack's forehead as the green head continued to swing at him helplessly with his tiny arms. Mark found the entire situation a bit comical.

His musings were cut short when Jack growled at the humiliation and did a backflip. Mark couldn't help the surprised yelp when he felt Jack kick him in an attempt to get distance. Mark pulled back and began massaging his hand in an attempt to sooth away the sharp pain.

Jack tried to take advantage of Mark's distraction with another straightforward charge. However, Mark still noticed and quickly hovered his hand over his Vid Box and smoke exploded around him.

Jack slid to a halt right outside the smoke cloud and got into a fighting stance in preparation for what might appear. When the smoke cleared, Jack was met with a small statue of an owl. Or at least, it would be small if he were his regular height, but because of his current stature, it was just tall enough to block his view of Mark. Jack growled at another blatant mockery of his height.

Still, he would not let Mark's childish taunts deter him. He jumped up with a handspring off of the statue and launched a mule kick at Mark's head. Mark's surprise was shown when he let out an effeminate squeal, but years of being a professional video gamer had honed his reflexes and he was able to duck down in time to avoid the flying child.

Jack soared over Mark, but he twisted his body so that he landed on his hands and led into a handspring to get some distance. After a moment, he got into a sprinting position for his next attack. Once he seemed satisfied with his position, he kicked off the ground and turned into a green blur.

"SPEED IS KEY!" Jack yelled as he blasted towards Mark.

Mark squeaked. Either Jack was getting serious, or he was getting mad. He hovered his hand over the Vid Box and pulled out a pair of Sai. If Jack's fight with the cyclops was anything to go by, this could get a little sketchy. He readied himself as Jack began to run clockwise around him.

With a grunt, he kicked off the ground and began to spin counter clockwise. As Jack struck out, Mark did his best to block whatever incoming attack he could. Even though he put up a valiant effort, a few strikes still made it through. Each one stung like a motherfucker, but it looked like Jack had somehow blunted his blades, so they did not actually break skin. He had a feeling that he was going to end up with quite a few colorful bruises.

As the blows continued to rain down, Mark remained vigilant for an opening until he found what he was looking for. Mark felt a mischievous grin spread across his face, and he stuck out his foot. He felt his appendage jerk to the side and Jack was sent rolling head over heels. Jack rolled a few meters with a shriek of his own. When Jack finally ran out of momentum, he flipped onto his back.

Mark slowly walked over and looked over Jack with an annoying grin, "All done?" he teased.

Jack responded with an eloquent middle finger.

Mark's antagonistic response was interrupted by a condescending slow clap. The two Youtubers snapped their heads to the side to see Danny, Tucker, and Sam openly amused.

Danny spoke up, "I would like to ask you two the same question."

Jack and Mark quickly jumped up and away from each other in embarrassment. Mark turned to Danny with an apologetic look, "Sorry about that."

Jack nodded in reluctant agreement.

Mark waited until Danny's assent before he addressed Jack, "So what was that about anyways?"

Jack pouted, "I found out that only one of us were allowed to go to space, so I figured that I could kick your ass and prove that I'm a better candidate."

Mark turned up his nose in faux indignation, "Poor Jack. Sweet naïve Jack. I'm older, so the privilege goes to me."

Jack jumped up in outrage, "You shut the hell up, you hairy bitch! I'm only one year younger than you!?"

Mark sniffed, "You look six to me."

"How's this for a six-year-old?" Jack's accompanied his yell by flipping double birds.

Off to the side, Sam eyed Tucker with concern in her lavender irises, "Are you sure that this is a good idea?"

Tucker shrugged helplessly, "Well, I thought that it was."

 **XxoxX**

Jack looked utterly heartbroken as Sam continued to lecture him on why it was better for him to stay down to help her defend the transporter from reinforcements. While she took care of that particular explanation, Danny, Tucker, and Mark walked off to the side.

"Alright, let's get this spar over with so that we can figure out an attack plan," Danny addressed Mark once they were far enough away from the other two, "Tucker will watch the fight and make sure that neither of us go too far. I'm still not used to fighting with humans yet."

Mark shrugged and reached for his Vid Box. He would pick at that little snippet once this was all over.

Mark stood across from Danny determinately, ready to prove himself so that he could go up to space. He waited for Sam's signal to start and he hovered his hand over his Vid Box and he pulled out a baseball bat and charged. While he knew that a straightforward charge against an unknown enemy was pure stupidity, he needed to attack quick to better show his skills, so strategy was going to have to be sacrificed.

Unfortunately, it did not impress as he was hoping because Danny just rolled his eyes and flew out of Mark's immediate reach. Mark grit his teeth at the blatant disregard for his attack, but silently added flight to Danny's repertoire of attacks.

He pulled out a baseball from his Vid Box and threw it in the air. Danny narrowed his eyes as Mark threw it in the air and hit it with the bat. However, his eyes widened when the bat connected with a loud SMAAAASH! and the ball was blasted right at him.

Danny yelped and flew out of the way, just barely missing the unreasonably fast projectile. Danny huffed and turned to Mark with his hands on his hips in indignation. However, he was unable to respond verbally because there was a sudden large wave of baseballs that were soaring right at him. He cursed and went intangible and let them pass through him.

Mark noted intangibility as another of Danny's abilities before he had a metaphorical lightbulb go on over his head. Before he could enact his plan, he had to pull out his turtle shield to block a wave of hail that began to rain down on him.

Once he felt a pause in the bombardment, he quickly sheathed his shield and pulled out what looked like a fire extinguisher.

Danny sent more ice down at him and he back flipped to get away quickly. Just as he landed on his hand to spring away, he felt the ground become icy and he felt his hand slip out from underneath him and he gracelessly landed hard on his back, momentarily dazed.

"Ha!" Danny laughed as he hovered right above Mark with a condescending smirk, "Is that really all you have. I might as well take Sam with me."

Mark grit his teeth and fought through the dizziness to fire several times at Danny with a spray from the fire extinguisher. White globs launched out and latched on Danny's arms and began to spread over his sleeves. Even though it did this, it did not cause any actual pain. Still, it did not explain one thing.

"What the heck? Why can't I go intangible?" he asked incredulously.

Mark smirked at his opponent's confusion and stood up to address him, "That was actually originally meant to freeze zombies, but since you're ghostly, I hoped it would work as well. It may not have frozen you completely, but I'll take what I can get."

Danny huffed and condensed green energy into his hand and it formed into a baseball bat. He landed as Mark prepared his own bat to defend the upcoming attack. The two traded blows back and forth, neither gaining or losing ground.

Danny used his free hand to shoot a green blast at Mark's feet, causing the red head to shriek and jump away. However, this did not give him the breathing room that he was attempting to regain. Mark did not let the attack stop him and he charged back into close combat with Danny. Eventually, he too started to feel the heat of battle and he launched his own attack with a water gun that he pulled out. He shot scalding water at Danny, who yelped and jumped back, sending his own blast at his attacker. The water missed Danny, but the blast hit Mark right in the chest and he was sent flying back into a forested area. He quickly regained himself in midair and flipped so that he could kick off of the nearest tree and send himself barreling back at Danny in his own improvisational attack.

Danny had used the small space that his attack had given him to start charging up a small explosive ball in an attempt to maybe daze Mark with the flash, but he had not anticipated Mark's quick recovery, so he was completely caught off guard at Mark's tackle and dropped his unstable creation to the ground and created a huge explosion that enveloped both combatants and sent them flying.

Danny hurriedly stood to defend himself, but just as quickly fell to his butt, panting, with Mark not too far behind him. Mark flopped onto his back and sent a cheeky smile at his sparring partner, "Not bad for a human, huh."

Danny rolled his eyes, "I will admit that you are stronger than some of the other ghosts I have fought."

"Ghosts?!" Mark shrieked, "What the hell, man!? As if being sucked into a video game wasn't enough! Now we have to deal with ghosts?!"

Danny gave him a flat look, "Didn't you say that you fought the Lunch Lady ghost before?"

Mark chuckled nervously, "Oh yeah, never mind."

Sam rolled her eyes.

Danny smirked, "Just so you know, I had one more super move that I did not use, because its super destructive. If I had used it, you would have probably been killed."

Mark smirked and began to stroke his chin in thought, "So you have a final super attack. Sweet. I wonder if I could come up with something like that."

"No time!" Sam interrupted his thought, "You guys have to rest up so that we can go face down Technus. The sooner we take him down, the better."

 **The end**

 **So I guess this isn't the last chapter. Just more bonding. It should be coming up soon, though. I actually have the last fight scene written down in my notebook, I just have to transpose it onto the computer. I guess that this story may have ended up being a practice run for writing fight scenes, but hey? Why not, right?**


	12. Chapter 12

Mark and the others snuck through the forest and found themselves in front of a looming building.

Mark looked up at the flamboyant structure with a whistle, "Wow. Technus is not much for subtlety is he?"

Sam shushed him and she turned to Tucker.

"I guess this is a good place as any to set up my lab," he said.

The two shared a nod and Tucker pulled out his lab brief case and began to set up.

As he worked on this, Sam turned to the other two with a nod, "Just to recap, Tucker has set up his lab next to the building so that he can better piggyback on the security system and monitor any incoming and outgoing communications. You see, when we attack Technus, I really doubt that we are going to go unnoticed. Jack and I are charged with the task of intercepting any backup that Technus calls for. Once we take the control room, you two will be on your own while we stand guard."

As she spoke, she led them towards the facility.

"First, though, we have to actually get in there.

Fortunately, Tucker's hacking has also given us access to the security cameras and building blueprints. According to those blueprints, the control room is in the very back of the facility, and we don't know how many enemies are on the path to it. This means that we are faced with an unknown number of assailants."

Mark and Jack nodded to show their understanding.

The four of them made their way past the fence and towards a large set of looming double doors.

Sam made to open them, but paused at something from her headpiece.

"What?!" she yelled, and paused at Tucker's response, "Is it a trap?"

Mark held up his hands in caution, "Hold on. Don't you think that we might want to be a little quieter? Shouldn't we be more concerned about alerting enemies?"

Sam snarled in frustration before she turned to Mark. After a moment of fuming, she took a calming breath and spoke evenly, "That would be a concern, but only if there were actually any enemies to alert."

This caused Jack to perk up, "Wait a minute, what are you talking about?"

Sam scowled at the door, "Tucker says the video cameras show no one in the building."

Mark blinked incredulously, "It's totally got to be a trap."

Sam gave him a flat look, "I would imagine so."

She cautiously pushed the door open, lacking the excited vigor that she previously had. They warily surveyed the room, and Mark felt no less tension when it ended up being completely empty.

Jack seemed to feel Sam's nervousness and he looked up to her with his own empathetic concern, "Where is everyone?"

Sam looked grim, "I don't know. That's the problem. Tucker's not picking anything up on the security cameras. There's also no trace of any of Technus's guards.

Mark thought for a second, "Is it possible that Tucker could check on previous footage from the camera? That way we could maybe find out where everyone went."

Sam shrugged, "It's worth a shot," and she relayed Mark's request to Tucker. After a moment, she nodded. Tucker was on it.

In the meantime, the four of them made their way down the dangerous hallways. Or at least, it probably was dangerous at one time. Now it was just eerily silent.

Finally, they came to a stop in front of a door and Sam spoke, "Alright, so the schematics of the building indicates that the control room is behind this door. While it's not exactly how we expected, the final battle looks like it's about to begin. Danny and Mark, I'm counting on both of you to keep each other safe. We're going to hold down the fort and make sure that nothing unsavory makes it through. Once we hear from Tucker, we can send you up.

As if on cue, Sam received another transmission, and she did not look happy, "Hold on, I'm gonna let the others hear."

She pushed a button and Tucker's voice projected from her earpiece, "This is odd. I'm looking at the video footage from twenty minutes ago, and it shows the building filled with guards chatting it up. What's weird is that it all stops when a single figure slams open the front door and says something. The video only has visual with no audio, so I don't know what he actually said.

Even so, whatever he said must have been impactful because after a pause, the calm is shattered and all of the soldiers begin to scramble to exit the building. Not even five minutes later, you all walked in.

I'm still not entirely sure of the reason for their flight, but they looked utterly terrified."

Mark looked thrilled, "So that means that no one is here, so we can all go up together, right? The more the merrier, and we can more easily take out Technus!"

Sam looked a little less excited, "Hold on. I don't like how they exited so quickly, so I still think that Jack and I should keep watch. We're still going to hold down the fort while you two go up there."

Danny seemed to think about it for a moment. Finally, he nodded to her, "You're probably right. We're counting on you then."

From the way he emphasized the word 'you,' it gave the impression that he was more talking to her alone.

Sam looked him in the eyes seriously, "Just don't die."

There was a prolonged, uncomfortable moment of the two staring longingly into each other's eyes.

"Hey! You two should kiss!"

Jack smiled mischievously at his interruption as Danny and Sam jumped apart with crimson faces. He and Mark fell onto the ground laughing hysterically and sat back to back.

Sam stormed over to the two Youtubers, face ablaze with embarrassment.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" She roared, efficiently masking her embarrassment with rage. It worked like a charm and the two were left cowering beneath her icy glare.

"Now," she began in a pseudo-calm voice, "Let's do this!"

Sam walked over and began typing away at the console. She pulled out Tucker's zip drive and popped it in before he typed a little more. Finally, she seemed satisfied with her work and she looked up.

She and Danny shared a nod and she pushed a button, causing Mark's world to disappear in a flash of green and white.

Once the flash cleared, they found themselves in what looked like a golden audience chamber. Up some stairs at the end of the room was a large golden throne, with Technus fanning himself with money.

"Really Technus? A throne room? Money?"

Technus jumped at Danny's voice, but recovered quick enough.

He responded in a haughty, arrogant tone, "It's a symbol of power. It's to showcase how outmatched that you are."

He stood up and a royal robe was draped around his shoulders and fluttered to the ground around him. Technus shrugged it to the ground and revealed a black battle suit.

How did you two make it past my army? It's impressive that you don't even look winded."

Danny gave a funny look, "I have no idea what you're talking about. There wasn't anyone in the building when we got here."

Technus suddenly lost his composure and he snarled in rage, "Traigor!" he then calmed himself and glared at them in misplaced irritation,

"You should be careful who you team up with if you ever try to take over the world. My partner told me that he was going to warn everyone if you were coming so that he could get them to run away. I merely thought that it was a joke, but apparently it was not. Once I destroy you two, I am going to enjoy watching him suffer. Now prepare to die!"

As if Technus's last statement was a starting gun, he dropped into a fighting stance and reached down and pulled out two gnarly looking swords.

Mark smirked and hovered his hand over his Vid Box for a second before he pulled out the Master sword again.

Danny chuckled lowly and gathered green energy into his hand, "Wow, this seems a little low-tech for your usual MO. What gives?" he emphasized his question by forming the green energy into a sword of his own.

Technus gave a superior smirk, "You underestimate me, Ghost child. I am the new Technus 3.0, and I have learned to adapt and become hip and cool like the young folks. This just means that I have another way to prove my dominance."

Danny and Mark charged in a pincer attack, but Technus easily brought his swords up in defense and parried both strikes. The three continued to trade blows with Technus easily fending off both attacks, and just as easily returning what was given.

The dance of blades suddenly came to a halt when Technus performed a surprisingly strong double downward slash and Danny and Mark both had to block to fend off the crushing attacks. Danny began to sweat slightly and he cut his eyes to Mark, "Maybe we should have thought this through better."

Technus laughed and kicked them both away, "Give it up! I've had months to download every written and recorded schematic of every sword style known to man. I know every move that you could ever think of even before you do. There is no way that you can defeat me!"

As Mark continued to strike out with his sword, he couldn't help but wonder why he fought the way he did. He could honestly say that he had absolutely no prior knowledge on how to wield the master sword, so what made him fight the way that he did? How would he know how to use any of his weapons for that matter?

His only conclusion would be that his knowledge must have been given to him along with his weapons. That meant that he theoretically had power over the implementation of those abilities, so…

Mark ignored his instinctual follow-up attack after a blocked slash and chose, against every single survival instinct that he had, to stand wide open in front of Technus.

Technus's vast knowledge of sword fighting caused him to falter at the unexpected illogical move, and Danny took that opportunity to slash Technus across the back, leaving a long, glowing green line in its wake. Technus roared in a mixture of anger and pain.

Mark cheered in victory and jumped away as Technus swung blindly, "It looks like all the technical manuals in the world can't prepare you for the one limitless resource that we have at our disposal: pure unbridled stupidity."

"And a lack of self-preservation," Danny chimed in cheerfully.

Technus was unable to give a response because he was still reeling from Danny's attack.

Mark and Danny shared a look before they charged together.

Unfortunately, Technus regained himself and sent the two flying with a shockwave. As they flew back, Technus began to charge a green energy ball in his hands.

Mark slid back on his butt and looked up at the attack with a bit of trepidation, "Oh hell, what the fuck is that?"

Danny held up a hand to calm Mark, "Hold on, I have an idea. Do you have a charge attack?"

Mark nodded in confusion, but still pulled out the Megabuster and began to charge it.

Danny nodded, "Right, just fire at the same time as me and we'll combine our attacks. Get ready to brace for impact, though. Things could get a little rough."

Mark nodded in agreement.

The two launched their attacks at the same time that Technus launched his own. Mark's blue beam combined with Danny's green beam and the two swirled into a blast that overpowered Technus's attack and exploded around him in a plume of smoke and debris.

Mark punched a fist in the air, "We did it! We beat him by crossing the beams!" Then, as if his reference had not been clear enough, he added, "Who ya gonna call?!"

He was not expecting for Danny to practically fall over in laughter. It only took him a second to realize why Danny had such a reaction, but when he did, he gave Danny a flat look for his slightly exaggerated response.

"C'mon!" Danny choked out between jovial giggles. "You chose now of all times to make a ghostbusters reference!"

"Don't get too comfy. I'm not done yet!"

Danny's mirth slid off of his face as Technus's voice drifted from the smoke cloud. After a moment, Technus limped out of the rubble, bloodied and bruised, but still able to fight.

"No! You should be down for the count after that attack!" Danny yelled in distress. After a moment, he shook his head, "Never mind! You're weakened, so we just have to attack again."

Technus began to cackle lowly and he slowly rose his arms. The room began to tremble, but before any of them could react, green and black binary data burst through the windows and doors and converged onto Technus.

"No!" Danny yelled in distress as the data began to repair Technus's injuries. Danny kicked off the ground and charged in an attempt to stop him, but he didn't get far before he was hit by a blast of energy. He cried out in anguish as electricity coursed throughout his body. Another blast followed the attack and sent him flying with a smoky trail behind him.

Unfortunately, Technus did not let that be the end of it. He followed Danny's soaring body and smashed him into the wall and let his body fall to the ground and revert back to human.

Technus cackled maniacally above the unconscious hero with malicious mirth, "You have finally met your end, Ghost child! Finally, after all this time, I will finally end this futile struggle of yours."

He brought his sword down, but suddenly found himself stopped with a fly of sparks. Mark had slid in and blocked his attack, "Forgetting someone?" he said cheekily. Technus didn't even react to Mark's sudden appearance and just increased his push and sent Mark down to his knees. Mark chuckled nervously, "I guess not."

Technus smirked at Marks' rising panic, "Foolish human! Did you really think that you could stand up to me? Once I kill you, I won't just stop there. I will kill Danny Phantom, followed by his two little helpers and finally that green haired friend of yours."

At Mark's shocked look, Technus sneered, superiority practically dripping from every word of his rant, "Oh? You thought that I didn't know about your group of ragtag warriors? You are all traveling through my game and I am the master of technology. I have eyes and ears everywhere! After I destroyed that pitiful virus that was deleting my data, I was just raring and waiting to defeat you all completely."

It was at this time that Mark had the extremely inappropriate thought that Tucker was right about Technus stopping to write a speech after he destroyed the virus. As he resisted the urge to chuckle at the silliness of the villain, Technus continued.

"Just think, once I get done with you two, your friends will meet with the same fate as your other two teammates. What were their names again? Glen and Anne?"

At Technus's words, Mark's humor left him and his stomach sunk like a lead weight. In his mind, he knew what Technus was doing. It was a classic bad guy strategy to seem flippant about your victims in an attempt to showcase your willingness to kill indiscriminately, but luckily, Mark had enough sense to ignore the barb and so after the initial uneasiness, he slowly regained his resolve.

Mark stood up slowly but steadily and Technus suddenly found himself having to strain a bit more to keep his sword down. It was only a bit, so he was still slowly overpowering, but the sudden increase in effort after an otherwise demoralizing comment made him take pause.

"Why are you not cowering in fear at my blatant act of intimidation?"

Mark still struggled to keep the swords from decapitating him, but he spoke with no other strain in his voice, "It's because you reminded me of why I was here in the first place. I'm not going to just lay down and let the same thing happen to someone else that happened to those two. That's pretty unfortunate for you, because you just happen to be in my way. I refuse to let you hurt anyone else!"

Technus suddenly looked panicked as Mark began to make headway, "What is going on? Where are you getting all of this strength from? You humans are all such fragile creatures!"

Mark smirked, "You'll understand that we humans have an annoying habit to gain unreasonable power when we fight on the behalf of our friends."

Before Technus could respond, he was met with a green blast to the face. As he flew back, Mark's shoulders slumped and he nodded to his companion. His distraction had done the trick and given Danny enough time to recover and rejoin the battle.

"You good?" he asked his new friend.

Danny sent Mark a grateful smile and nodded, "Thanks. I just needed a moment to catch my breath. Now I'm ready to do this!"

Mark held up a hand, "Hold on. First off, would you say that this would qualify as a final boss battle?"

Danny sent Mark a funny look at the non-sequitur, but nodded hesitantly after a second.

Mark could barely hold his excitement, "Let me try something."

On the other side of the room, Technus was angrily pulling himself out of the rubble caused by his crash. He growled out in anger at the two, "That is it! I have had it with you annoying humans! Today will be my crowning glory. It will go down in history as the day that My rule truly began. The day that I finally defeated Danny Phantom!"

Mark was unaffected by Technus's rant and chose instead to address Danny, "So I got to thinking about when you said that you had an end-all special attack. After some thought. I finally came up with my own," he paused, "or I may have borrowed it."

He hovered his hand over his Vid Box and seven orbs of different colored lights shot out and began drifting lazily around Danny and Mark. After a moment, the lights began to glow brighter, and Danny and Mark were hit with a wave of energy that supercharged them. Mark felt that he could do anything with this new power, and from Danny's stance beside him, he had a feeling that he wasn't the only one.

Danny's eyes began to glow with a golden light as opposed to its natural neon green color. His body also gained an overall golden glow. Technus was undaunted by the apparent power boost, and he rose his hands and a physical wave of data rose up behind him and he sent it crashing towards them.

Mark held up a hand to keep Danny from responding. He smirked and disappeared into a flash of yellow light. Suddenly, the wave of data exploded into an equally golden light. A second later, Mark reappeared beside Danny.

Danny looked between the destruction and Mark with a pensive frown, "What just happened?"

Mark smirked, "I just went Super Sanic fast. It was either this or a gigantic blaster. I figured that this would be less destructive."

Danny gave him a funny look, "Not that I don't appreciate the power boost, but why did you choose now of all times to use this instead of at the beginning when we could have used the extra power?"

"Well, we only have one hundred and fifty seconds before this wears off, but it will leave us utterly exhausted." Mark's response was said with cheerfulness that was not indicative of the situation in the least.

Despite the gravity of their situation, Danny smirked, "Then we better hurry."

The two high-fived and disappeared into dual flashes of golden light and blasted forward.

Unfortunately, Mark's initial act of unnecessary force had completely ruined the element of surprise. Technus was not labeled the master of this place just for kicks and giggles. He used his superior intellect to calculate the probable area of attack and punched the air just as Mark appeared and the red head was sent flying by the hit. Due to his energy shield, Mark was undamaged by the impact with the wall, but he was still stalled by the debris that was kicked up.

Meanwhile, Technus was so busy basking in the success of his attack that he didn't notice the ghost boy that tackled him from the side. He was sent flying into the wall with concussive force. He was not fortunate enough to have his own shield to cushion the blow, so he was extremely winded by the powerful attack. It certainly didn't help that he hadn't been attacked with that kind of power for several months and he had gotten a little rusty. He pulled himself to his feet with a roar of fury.

Danny responded with a blast of swirling gold and green energy and sent the technological ghost flying into the wall.

Technus pulled himself from the rubble with noticeable effort. His normally pristine black lab coat was tattered and the white undershirt could be seen beneath. Technus yelled in anger and exploded into a bright light.

"You have been a thorn in my side for the last time! There will be no more of this foolishness! You will die now!" Technus roared and charged forward in a burning rage.

Danny whispered frantically to Mark, "Get behind me, preferably behind something else as well to take cover, and cover your ears. I have one more attack that I can try. It did not work before when I tried it on him, but I'm hoping that your power boost will be able to give it the kick that it needs."

Mark shrugged and did as he was told. He jumped back behind a collapsed piece of wall. Once he was ready, he peeked around the rubble in time to see Danny open his mouth and Mark was hit with a blast of sound that his hands barely dampened. It sounded like hundreds of dead souls crying out. It was something out of a horror movie.

Green and yellow sound waves began emanating from Danny's mouth and enveloped Technus. Mark could see the trenches being dug by Technus's shoes as he tried to keep his footing. After a few seconds, it wasn't hard to see that he was losing the battle. This fact was emphasized when Technus suddenly tripped on something and began to tumble back along with the soundwaves until he crashed into the wall and kicked up a large cloud of debris.

When it cleared, Technus was laid out on the ground, and it looked like he wasn't getting up any time soon. Mark looked around the room and gained a flat look at the destruction caused by Danny's attack. The complete back of the room was collapsed with rubble strewn all around.

He directed his flat look to his battle companion, "You remember how I said that I picked a less destructive attack? This would be why." He winced when a hanging piece of debris fell from the ceiling with a large crash, "I'm surprised that this whole space station hasn't collapsed."

Danny scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, "That's true. I guess I could have thought that through better."

Mark glared at Danny in exasperation, "Well, did we win, at least?"

Marks' head shot to the side as Technus began to pull himself to his feet, "You haven't defeated me, Ghost Child!"

Danny smirked and decided to respond to both ocupants, "Not yet," he pulled out what looked like a soup thermos and blasted out a blue light that encased Technus. The technological ghost began to break down and was being pulled into the thermos.

"No!" Technus shrieked and began to claw at the ground, "How do you have that blasted thing?! I destroyed it!"

Before Danny could answer, Technus was broken down completely and sucked into the thermos.

At first, all Mark could do was stare at the place that once held Technus, but it slowly began to sink in and a smile slowly spread over his face. They did it. They finally beat him, and he was free to go home.

He rose his hands up to yell out in celebration, but unfortunately, that was as far as he got, because the emeralds seemed to have finally run their course and the glow around his body disappeared. With his lack of energy, he suddenly found the ground to be very interesting. At least, that would be the only reasonable explanation of why he fell on his face like a rock.

As he felt his consciousness leaving him, his eyelids began fluttering, but he could still see black boots as they walked around him and someone leaned down and picked up the thermos from an equally weak Danny's hands. Mark tried to raise a protest, but he could do nothing, and the last thing he heard was maniacal laughter as the darkness collapsed in around him.

 **XxoxX**

Mark jumped awake and found himself laying on a small bedroll in what looked like a tent. Beside him, he saw a similar bedroll laid out. There was signs that someone had been in it recently, but it was currently empty.

Mark's attention was drawn to the door to the tent when he heard murmuring from a boy and a girl. He slowly pulled himself out of bed, resisting the urge to groan. The emeralds had drained him more than he had expected, and now he was left with the feeling of led weights on his limbs.

He made it to the door and peeked out. His shoulders sagged in relief when he saw that the two voices belonged to Danny and Sam. He opened the door and addressed the two.

"What happened?" Last I remember, there was a man who took Technus and said that he would take over the empire."

Sam rolled her eyes, "Yeah… That was Traigor. It was almost sad how easy it was to beat him. That idiot was so arrogant with nothing to back it up. He was completely caught off guard when he stepped out of the transporter. Luckily, he had the same proclivity to spout his plans as Technus, so we quickly figured he was not good news.

He went down almost too easily and we trapped him in the thermos as well. We then used the teleporter to find out why he had been able to get the thermos in the first place and we found you two.

I made haste to get you two down here and into Tucker's medical tent. Now that you're both awake. We can finally shut this game down and set all of the trapped people free."

Mark took a calming breath, "It's finally over. We can end this."

Before Mark could make his way to Tucker, Danny stopped him, "You know, once this is over, You're going to have to keep my secret identity to yourself."

Mark paused in thought, "You mean how you're a super powered ghost hero?" He shrugged, "Yeah, sure, I guess I can keep quiet about it."

Sam nodded, "Thank you… for both the secret keeping and the saving the world thing."

Mark smirked, "It's no biggie. It's what I do," he paused to crack his fingers, "Just another day in the life of Markiplier."

Sam looked unimpressed, "Stop acting cool." She deadpanned.

Mark's shoulders sagged, "damn it."

The three made their way down from the tent and to Jack and Tucker. Tucker was typing away when Danny addressed him.

"We're ready to go. Mark and I are recovered enough to make the return trip home. Let's end this."

Tucker nodded, but kept his eyes on the screen, "It'll be a moment until I finish the program to end Technus's control. You might want to take this time to say your good byes. "

Danny nodded and smiled, "Good idea," he turned to Mark and held out his hand.

After a moment Mark smiled and shook it.

"Thanks for your help. You were a major factor in this victory," he said.

Sam walked to Jack and shook his hand, "Thank you for the help. We would have never made it as far as we did if you had not been there for us. I can't thank you enough."

Jack gave a charming smile, "I'm happy that I could help."

She smiled as well.

"Here we go, "Tucker said and pushed a final button.

Before Mark could say anything else, his world disappeared in a flash of binary data.

 **XxoxX**

As a flash revealed the real world once again, Mark suddenly found himself flying out of his computer screen and onto the floor of his recording room. After a few winded seconds laying on his stomach, he pushed himself up to sit on his butt.

He then shakily stood up and walked over to his desk and heavily sat down onto his chair. He went into the files of saved recordings and deleted his most recent file. He would have to contact Matt and tell him that he did not find this series worth continuing.

He pushed himself up and went to his bedroom to lay down on his bed. It was finally time for him to have a real nap.

Thankfully, there was no fog this time.

 **End**

 **Dagnabbit, this chapter was a pain in the ass. When I first wrote it, I ended up changing the events of the story because I had not read the story in a while and I forgot what happened. I ended up having to reread the whole story so that I could catch up. I am not entirely satisfied with the ending, but I felt that if I did not post now I would not post at all. Apologies for any typos that I missed. Anyway! Chapter done!**

 **So the epilogue is the only thing left. I have it in my notebook, but I haven't even created the file for it on my computer yet. Time to hunker down and try to finish this bad boy.**

 **I would like to see someone who could name all the games I referenced with the vidbox. I had someone compare the box ghost to boxxle, so I had to look the game up. It was a pleasant surprise.**

 **Anyways… Read and review! Burnzs out!**


	13. Epilogue

"…And I'll see you in the next video. Bye bye!"

Mark reached over to stop his recording. Once he knew that he was done for the day, his hands fell into his lap and he stared blankly at the cooling monitor.

This had been the routine ever since the incident a few weeks ago.

When he first returned home, he had thought that everything could go back to normal and he could just ignore the near traumatic events that had transpired. He tried to speed up the healing when he deleted the recording and any evidence that he was involved with the game. He even called Matt and told him to delete the recording that he had sent. It was starting to look like he could finally start healing.

That is, until he noticed what day it was that he had returned. He was shocked to find that his adventure in the game took him far longer than he had thought and it looked like he had missed out on posting his video for that day. And he did not have time to post anything. What's worse, he had been invited to a gamer get together in New York, so he would not have time to post anything.

It didn't help that he knew that he would be unable to truthfully explain where he had been for so long. He called up Jack and the two of them came up with the story that they had both been traveling. They were both going to travel to New York anyways, and New York's internet was notoriously bad. They figured that they could just say that Mark left earlier than he did and the internet connection prevented him from posting anything.

They even convinced Felix to help encourage their cover story, and they made a video where Pewdiepie and Jacksepticeye slapped Markiplier. Jack did not have to worry because he had prerecorded enough videos to get away with the absence.

Once they were done recording in New York, Mark came back home and was finally able to process what happened.

The trip to New York provided a nice break, but with no Felix and no Jack, he was all out of distractions, and Mark only had what happened to think of.

Despite the amount of time that separated him from his experience in cyberspace, Mark couldn't help but vibrantly remember everything that happened. He still had the scrap of paper from Anne, hastily thrown onto his desk before he left.

As he stared at his monitor, he began his inner dilemma that came up after every video he's recorded since then.

His eyes bounced between the phone and the scrap of paper several times before he looked down in shame. He knew what he had to do, but he was still hesitant. Usually, he would just do what he had to do diligently, but he found it harder to bring himself to do this since it could actually affect someone's life.

He shook his head and picked up the scrap gently. Clutching it in his hands, he eyed the phone hesitantly. After what seemed to be an eternity, he growled at his own childishness and grabbed the phone. Before he could stop himself, he dialed the number and listened for the dial tone on the other side.

After a moment, a boy answered, "Davis residence, this is Cory speaking. The poor kid sounded exhausted. Not physically tired, but emotionally drained.

Mark was unable to find the words he needed, so he remained silent.

Unfortunately, Cory seemed to take this the wrong way and he continued speaking harshly, "Listen, I don't know who you are, but this prank has lost its novelty. I was serious when I said that my parents went missing. I don't appreciate you tying up the only contact that I gave to the police. I don't know what kind of sick fuck would continuously taunt a boy who lost his family, but I want you to know that if you do not stop calling me, I will have you arrested for harassment!"

Mark began to panic as Cory started to hang up, "No wait! Don't hang up!" he yelled in hopes of catching Cory before he cut him off.

There was a long, heavy silence from the phone and Mark was afraid that Cory had actually hung up.

Finally, Cory spoke hesitantly on the other end, "Who is this? Now that I'm actually paying attention, I can see that this is the number that keeps calling and hanging up."

Mark let out a heavy sigh, "Cory, I know what happened to your parents.

The other end went silent again, but this time it seemed more impactful than before.

"What," Cory said hesitantly. The eighteen-year-old boy suddenly sounded like a young child. "Where are they? Are they alright?"

Mark sighed morosely, "I don't come with good news. First off, I want to start by saying that your parents were the bravest people that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting."

"Had?" Cory seemed to latch on the past tense.

Mark could hear Cory's breath hitch as he repeated the word. However, Cory continued his thought, "I've seen enough and read enough to know that starting any explanation like that is never a good sign."

Mark could see that Cory was trying to mask his worry with humor.

He politely ignored when Cory's voice cracked halfway through his sentence.

Mark released another heavy sigh and decided that he should stop dancing around the topic and decided to lay it out straight, "They died protecting me. They had just met me, but they still did everything they could to help me." Mark paused, but couldn't help but add depreciatingly, "I was unable to protect them in return."

"No," Cory spoke softly, "No, no, no! Please, no!" Cory's words began to raise in volume and desperation until they became watery nonsensical exclamations as the teenager began to break down over the phone. Mark couldn't help but feel his own eyes prickle at the sound of Cory's grief. Still, he gave the boy a moment to compose himself.

Finally, Cory seemed coherent enough to respond, "What happened," he said resolutely.

This was the part that Mark was nervous about. He spoke slowly, "Now before I begin, I need you to keep an open mind. The incident was a little outlandish."

"What?" Cory said flatly, "Tell me what happened and then I'll decide if you're batty or not."

Mark chuckled nervously, "Well, you see, I started playing this new game called Doomed…"

Mark then began his tale of his escapades. He explained his first impressions of the game, his abduction, and his interactions with Technus. He then told of how the couple arrived and about their fight with Ember. He then moved on to his talk with Glen, his spar with Anne, and how he had antagonized Glen before the final battle and caused him to run into the boss battle before they were prepared.

Finally, he ended with the fight with Skulker and how the three were soundly defeated until Anne sacrificed herself to defeat Skulker and save Mark.

Cory stayed silent throughout Mark's monologue, and when it was finally over, he took a second to respond.

After a completive pause, Cory spoke softly, "My parents are so awesome."

There was no disbelief in Cory's tone, and Mark gaped at the phone, "That's it? You aren't upset? You don't blame me for their deaths? You even believe me? Monsters and ghosts?"

Cory sounded relieved over the other side, "I am extremely sad about their passing, but it's nice to actually know what happened to them. I am very proud that they were able to do what they set out to do. I will miss them dearly, but as for blaming you? No I don't blame you. The way you told it sounded like you were doing enough of that for the both of us."

Mark winced.

Cory sighed on the other end, "The only way that I can make them truly proud of me would be to live a good life. It might be hard at the beginning, but I can make it through."

Mark shook his head in surprise. Apparently, Anne and Glen weren't the only strong ones in the family.

Cory continued through Mark's musing, "Another reason that I believe you is because of the way that you described them. You got their character spot on. My mom has a tendency to be bombastic to strangers, attempting to make it her first impression. My dad is also really reserved and lets her do the talking. The things you said that they did sounded exactly like something that they would do."

Mark smiled at the fondness that he heard in Cory's voice. After a second he shook his head and his smile slipped off of his face, "Wait, and how is it exactly that you believe me about monsters attacking me? A game? Aragon? Boxy? Patricia? Technus?"

Cory chuckled, "Well, it's not as outlandish as you might think. Let me tell you a little about my home town. It's a friendly little place called Amity Park…"

 **End**

 **Annnnnd Done! I finally finished this after far too long. It took me so long, because some of my information is outdated. For instance, Mark has Ethan now instead of Matt, and Mark no longer has red hair. What's more is that I made a reference to a video that Mark actually made when he went to New York. No one will see it because I planned on putting it in after I saw it, but that was such a long time ago. While I'm not entirely unsatisfied with this story, I think I'm going to stick to fictional characters from now on. I hope you enjoyed this. I realize that Markiplier X Danny Phantom crossover is quite the odd topic to use, but I really liked his videos and I couldn't actually think of a good game to write about, so I wrote this. It was supposed to help me to better evolve my writing.**

 **Have a nice day!**

 **Burnzs out!**


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